Comedy coming up this year
News about acts and performances at Dave’s Leicester Comedy festival is coming in day by day; here is our pick of what to expect.
Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival has begun.
from 3rd to 21st February 2016, Leicester plays host to the longest-running festivals of laughs.
Get all the details from the Comedy festival website.
Little Asian Women
Friday 19th February and/or Saturday 20th February
at the LCB Depot in Rutland Street.
JAMJAR (Jews and Muslims Joined against racism) Presents….
Work-in-progress of new show
SAJEELA KERSHI: SHARIA’S L.A.W. (Little Asian Women)
Who’s the unsung heroine in your life?
A show celebrating the little invisible unsung heroines in every family. Bigging up those little women – Sometimes you need to visit the past to understand why you are who you are today? Partician, Refugees, sibling rivalry, misogyny and what on earth happened to the women of colour in the film suffragette? Will the real heroines please stand up and be counted?
Sajeela Kershi has been performing stand-up since 2006, getting her big break as part of Brendon Burns’s 2007 Edinburgh Comedy Award (formerly Perrier) winning show, So I Suppose This Is Offensive Now? She made her Edinburgh Fringe solo debut in 2009 and was a Hackney Empire New Act Award finalist in 2011. Her TV credits include appearances on Comedy Central and on ITV2’s Comedy Cuts, she has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Loose Ends. Radio 4 Saturday Live, 2015 saw Sajeela win the Asian Women of Achievement Award (Arts and Culture section) and received the Brighton Argus Award for Artistic Excellence for her multi-bill storytelling show Immigrant Diaries, a show that Sajeela created and curates and that has played to full houses across the UK. Sajeela’s broadcasting experience as a pundit has ranged across numerous BBC radio stations, Sky news, ITV London News and an ITN Election Special. The Huffington Post named Sajeela in their Top 50 Funny Women to follow on Twitter (@SajeelaKershi). You can also find her on Facebook: facebook.com/SajeelaKershi.
20th February
Kafka or Magaluf
Part Rave, Part Nightmare, an immersive trip to a bureaucratic nightclub. Clipboard or waffle? Dance or cry? Kafka or Magaluf?
An immersive comedy show about finding out who to hate.
Malcolm Julian Swan presents Kafka or Magaluf
Saturday 20 February, 10.45pm
Criterion
Age restriction: 18+
Tickets: FREE.
a unique free comedy-rave experience. Reserve free tickets from the Dave Leicester Comedy festival website.
A hilarious line-up of stand-up, theatre and kid’s comedy.
The University of Leicester’s Attenborough Arts Centre will take part in Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival this February; hosting 12 new shows by local favourites and new emerging comedians.
In this programme, packed full of fresh new talent, we have a variety of comedy to make you giggle, laugh out loud and even question what is cool. In the first week of Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival we’ve already witnessed a crocodile and a mannequin’s head falling in love, comedy from mental health service users, clowning from theatre company Fowl Humour and fast-paced comedy from participants on the What’s the Story workshop, some taking to the stage for the very first time!
The second week of the comedy festival is jam-packed and so is our line-up. We are offering comedy festival goers the opportunity to see two great shows at a discounted rate by Leicester-based comedian and self-confessed comedy diva Jack Britton, which sees him singing his heart out in this high energy musical comedy and Nottingham-based Lewys Holt who has created a semi-autobiographical show about what it means to be cool, expect music, dance and dress up!
Double bill tickets are available at www.attenborougharts.com for £8 to see Jack Britton’s greatest hits (debut album) at 7pm and Lewys Holt presents Of, Or, At A Fairly Low Temperature at 8.30pm on Thursday 11 February.
Comedy isn’t just for grownups; we have shows to keep children aged 3+ years entertained too during half term. As part of Leicester Mini Fridge in association with Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival we are hosting family shows, including Leicester Fridge presents Mini Fridge: comedy for kids. The even more Further Adventures of Shirley on Wednesday 17 February at 11am. This interactive show invites the audience to dance, sing and make crafts. The next children’s show has an exciting twist where visitors decide what happens next and watch as the magic unfolds in Lindsey and Ian’s Incredible Interactive Improv on Wednesday 17 February at 1pm. In Kids’ Court on Wednesday 17 February at 3pm, parents sit in the dock in the court where the kids are in charge! This is one not to be missed! Suitable for 7+ years.
Daniel Nicholas, Guest Programmer for Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival, said ‘It’s been great to be involved in putting the programme together for Attenborough Arts Centre at this year’s festival, and there’s a real range of shows on for people to see, with comedians coming from all over the country, not just Leicester. We have The Book of Northern on the 20 February, exploring what it’s like to be Northern! The festival is a great time of year for Leicester and offers a wide range of comedy, something for everyone, and I think this year’s programme at Attenborough Arts Centre reflects that’
Tickets are available on our website: www.attenborougharts.com and at our Box office: 0116 252 2455.
I’m Migrant!
Ishi Khan-Jackson will be at The Guildhall on Tuesday 9th February. One of two shows she is doing, it starts at 8pm. The same show will also take place on Saturday 13th.
13th February
Poetman
Local artist Poetman will be performing at The LCB Depot in Rutland Street.
More about Poetman on his Facebook page.
A Fete worse Than Death
13th February
Karen Sherrard: A Fête Worse Than Death
Welcome to the village fête in Llanfairchwaraesboncen, nestled in the South Wales Valleys. Join your host, 76 year old village busybody Iris Evans, in a fun-filled romp complete with competitions, slide shows and audience participation. Also featuring guest speaker, Esme de Flange, a lascivious TV gardener providing advice on sowing seed, trimming your shrubbery and producing a prize marrow. But will you be able to contain yourself for the grand finale? THE RAFFLE!
This one-woman show, written and performed by Karen Sherrard (winner of Last Mic Standing 2014), debuts at the festival this year.
“Refreshing, wry, warm, witty and winsome…you want to bottle Sherrard and take her home” Colin Sell, BBC Radio 4’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue.
Show Information
Date : February 13th
Time: 10.30pm (doors 10.10pm)
Show length: 1 hour
Venue : Kayal
Info tel: 0116 255 4667
Tickets : £6 / £5 concs
Wisdom of a fool
WISDOM OF A FOOL – SATURDAY 13TH FEBRUARY
The Little Theatre is proud to include Wisdom of a Fool – Saturday 13th February 2016 7.30pm – in their programme of shows for Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival in 2016. Jack Lane’s portrayal of the great man (and of course patron of the Festival since its inception), received standing ovations when it opened at the Capital Theatre Horsham in September 2015.
Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th February
Adrian Mole is back… only now he’s Woody Allen(ish)
Photo: copyright Joe Hulbert
Woody Allen(ish)
Simon Schatzberger, who was chosen by Sue Townsend to play the
original Adrian Mole at Leicester Pheonix Arts Theatre and in the
West End, brings his Woody Allen show to Dave’s Leicester Comedy
Festival, uncannily performing his legendary 1960s stand-up comedy
(including ‘The Moose’). Following fantastically reviewed, sell-out
London and Edinburgh Festival performances, and before a series of
shows in New York and LA, this is a must see for fans of Woody and
classic American comedy.
Sat 13th & Sun 14th February 2016 at 615pm
Just The Tonic at Hansom Hall
54 Belvoir St Leicester LE1 6QL
Find out more: Woody Allenish website | Just The Tonic
Doug Segal
Comedy mind reader extraordinaire Doug Segal will be performing his 5 star, critically acclaimed show, How To Read Minds & Influence People, at the Leicester Comedy Festival on 4th February at 7.50pm at Kayal.
Have you ever wanted to read someone’s mind or implant a
subliminal suggestion? Doug Segal (as seen on BBC1 and BBC3)
can teach you that and more in his hit show How To Read Minds And
Influence People, all while making you laugh in the process.
James Ross – Leopardoptera
After three sell-out Edinburgh Fringe runs with improv troupe Fat Kitten Improv, 2010-12, James has turned his hand to stand-up with 2013’s “Ross vs Violich: Pistols at 3.55pm” and 2014’s “Unicornucopia”. He runs cult favourite monthly night Quantum Leopard, just off London’s occasionally trendy Brick Lane: a pay-what-you-like, bring-your-own-booze affair that vaguely evokes the DIY spirit of the squat party. He likes pina coladas and walking in the rain and dislikes timewasters.
High-energy, left field stand-up for people who’ve read a book, without pictures, and enjoyed it. Charming moustachioed comedian WLTM audience with GSOH for fun, maybe more. It’s my first full hour. I quite like it, I hope you will too.
Brewdog Leicester, 8 Friar Lane, Leicester, LE1 5RA
On 7th Feb 2016, Doors 1930, Show start 2000
Visit the Dead Cat Comedy Club page on Facebook.
Zahra Barri
Stand Up Comic, Zahra is a bit like the country of Turkey, in that she’s a mix of Eastern and Western culture, and also she is a bird. A fun look into Eastern and Kanye Western Culture. ‘Terrific’ Venue Magazine
As heard on BBC Radio 4 Extra and BBC Radio 2
Daphna Baram
Something to Declare
Sat 6 Feb 4:45 at Just The Tonic, Hanson Hall
How to pass the Englishness test, build a New Jerusalem and become UKIP’s worst nightmare – An immigrant speaks out
After a successful full Edinburgh Fringe run, shows at the Museum of Comedy London, Leicester Square Theatre, and Women in Comedy Manchester and Dave Comedy Festival in Leicester (Feb 2016) – Daphna Baram brings her “immigrational comedy” to Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival. “Masterful; Superbly refreshing” (Bunbury Magazine), Illuminating and poignant” (The List)
Daphna Baram, an Israeli human rights lawyer turned journalist (Ha’aretz, The Guardian, The Independent, New Statesman, AlJazeera, BBC), invaded the UK in 2002. 13 years in, she now finally has an indefinite leave to remain. Her journey took her from suicide-bombing infested Jerusalem of the early 2000s to the dreaming spires and endless social rules of Oxford fellowships, then on to London’s media world of air-kissing and double-talk.
She studiously memorised pub etiquette, East-enders knowledge, dead royals’ wives, posh ways of causing offence and Christmas do-s and don’ts – in order to pass the ultimate test of Englishness (and the dread of all immigrants): the pub quiz – otherwise known as the Life In The UK Test.
Joz Norris
BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS
Award-winning idiot and one-man comedy cult Joz Norris
presents potentially the most audacious, ambitious and
unique show at Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival 2016 –
one idiot doing one comedy show in two places at the
same time. Quite whether it’ll work is anybody’s guess.
There are two audiences in two adjacent venues. One
man, via a bit of multimedia trickery, a lot of running, and
a series of enthusiastic comedy stunts that can be
performed in an endless series of variations, will attempt
to keep both audiences entertained simultaneously.
Whether it ends up a precisely engineered triumph of
intricate technical complexity, or a chaotic mess that only
just about holds together, it’ll be one of the silliest,
stupidest and most unique bits of nonsense in Leicester
this year.
Heroes @ The Criterion & Heroes @ Bob’s BlundaBus
Saturday 20th February, 13:00
Free Entry
Hilarity Bites present
BEST OF IRISH
Three of Ireland’s finest acts come to Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival for 2 special nights of top comedy.
Venue: Kayal, 153 Granby Street
Tom O’Mahony, an Irish stand-up and I will be performing for 2 nights (5-6th Feb) with a few other Irish comedian chums (it’s an odd word I know) at Kayla on 153 Granby Street. The shows will consist of Tom O’Mahony and Conor Drum on Friday 5th and Eleanor Tiernan joins us for the craic on Saturday 6th February.
Lost Voice Guy
Venues
BREWDOG
Address:
8 Friar Lane
Leicester
LE1 5RA
Telephone: 0116 262 3566
Leicester Guildhall
Guildhall Lane, Leicester, LE1 5FQ
KAYAL
Address:
153 Granby Street,
Leicester
LE1 6FE
THE LITTLE THEATRE
Address:
Dover Street,
Leicester
LE1 6PW
Telephone: 0116 255 1302
JUST THE TONIC AT HANSOM HALL
Address:
Wellington Street,
Leicester
LE1 6HL
Telephone: 0115 910 0009