The comedy week ahead

The comedy week ahead...

Monday January 20

LIVE IN LONDON: Tommy Tiernan starts a two-week run at the Soho Theatre of his new show Stray Sod, named – as so many comedy shows are – after an enchanted piece of grass. As usual, it’s Tiernan urging us to embrace our inner lunacy in these compliant times.

LIVE IN LONDON: Also at Soho, one of the breakout shows of last year’s Edinburgh Fringe – Jamie Demetriou’s People Day, a career-making display of character comedy which is here all week. Review from Edinburgh

Tuesday January 21

LIVE IN LONDON: Daniel Kitson and Stewart Lee on the same bill should be all you need to know to snap up tickets for the gig at the Bloomsbury Theatre tonight. That it’s in aid of the PBH Free Fringe that’s done so much to change the Edinburgh Festival for the better is another plus. Meanwhile the supporting cast includes Phill Jupitus, Robin Ince, Andrew Maxwell and more…

LIVE IN LONDON: Before his first UK tour in seven years, Frank Skinner begins a five-week residency at the at the Leicester Square Theatre with his new show, Man In A Suit. If his run at nearby Soho Theatre last year was anything to go by, he hasn’t lost his stand-up mojo… Here is a review of that show, and a schedule of forthcoming dates.

LIVE IN MANCHESTER: The much-loved – but itinerant – XS Malarkey sets up home in yet another venue today: The Pub/Zoo, right in the heart of studentland. Rob Rouse, Rob Deering and Mr XS, Toby Hadoke, get the ball rolling…

LIVE IN HAMPSHIRE: Omid Djalili starts his new tour at the Phoenix Theatre in Bordon. Dates.

Wednesday January 22

LIVE IN LONDON: Another night, another benefit at the Bloomsbury. Lauugh Till It Hurts, in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support, features Simon Evans, Andrew Lawrence, Shappi Khorsandi and more…

Thursday January 23

LIVE IN BRISTOL: There’s a good selection of up-and-coming talent at Chuckle Busters at the Wardrobe Theatre, including Alfie Brown’s disillusioned polemic and Matt Rees’s hangdog deadpan. Can’t go far wrong for a fiver…

Friday January 24

TV Ruth Jones’s comedy-drama Stella returns for a third series. Now sporting a rather spiffy blonde do, her single mum has a potential love interest with the arrival of handsome lawyer and recent divorcee Michael – played by The Office’s Patrick Baladi. True to romcom form, the pair’s first run-in is, of course, far from romantic. Sky 1, 9pm

LIVE IN BRISTOL:The city’s Slapstick Festival starts with a screening of Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights – with a 39-piece orchestra and introduced by Omid Djalili. Highlights over the weekend include Terry Jones introducing Monty Python’s Meaning Of Life, the Goodies introducing some lost Buster Keaton gems,Harry Hill running through his top comedy moments and Harold Lloyd’s Safety Last with Colin Sell on the Piano… Website.

LIVE IN LONDON: The Bloomsbury Theatre features yet again… this time as the starting point for a new nationwide tour from science-based comedy trio Festival Of The Spoken Word, Full Frontal Nerdity. Dates

Published: 19 Jan 2014