New tours for Moran, Howard and more...

Moran starts his 32-date schedule in York on October 1, ending in Oxford at the end of November. The show, What It Is, will be the Black Books star’s fourth major tour, and the first since Like, Totally in 2005.

Meanwhile Mock The Week regular Russell Howard will be performing his new show Dingledodies at 58 UK venues, starting with a run of just five shows in the Assembly Rooms at the Edinburgh Fringe.

He will be hoping to repeat the success of his Adventures show, which sold more than 38,000 tickets over 66 dates.

Phoenix Nights star Paddy McGuinness is also hitting the road in September, following a brief run of warm-up gigs.

His show, Plus You, features a talent show element – with the support act for each night being drawn from local comedians, singers, dancers or variety acts.

He will be selecting the acts from submitted DVDs, and the best will win £2,000 and appear on the DVD of the tour released later in the year. Enter by sending a disc to No Third Entertainments, PO BOX 1121, Preston, PR4 5UY, by May 17.

Rob Brydon and Fred MacAulay have also announced a series of gigs in their respective homelands. Brydon will be touring Wales in November, and McAuley goes around Scotland from next month.

Spring also sees a double-header tour from Norman Lovett and Hattie Hayridge, who both played computer Holly in Red Dwarf. They will each be performing stand-up sets, followed by a Q&A session from fans of the sci-fi sitcom.

Finally, Tim Minchin and John Shuttleworth will also be touring in the autumn, although their full dates have not yet been released.

The new raft of autumn shows adds to what is already one of the busiest seasons for live comedy, with huge tours for Lee Evans, The Mighty Boosh and Steve Coogan previously announced.

For full details of all the dates, visit Chortle’s ‘On Tour’ page.

Published: 18 Apr 2008