FESTIVAL PREVIEW #3: The Best of the Rest of the Fest (part 1)

OK, it's getting awfully close to the start of Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival 2013, and I had lots of preview posts planned, but time waits for no man and I have been very distracted by the twin evils of work and illness (awwww bless!)
So I've combined some of the best bits from the remaining categories of comedy, to give you a few more pointers in terms of shows to look out for at the festival, all neatly pigeon-holed for your convenience (and the performers' annoyance, I suspect!)

Nutter: Terry Alderton

WIN TWO TICKETS to see RUSSELL KANE at De Montfort Hall

Okeydokey, we've got another fantastic ticket competition for you comedy-lovin' folk, and it's a biggie!

Russell Kane, the strutting, metrosexual star of Britain Unzipped and Live at The Electric, is coming to De Montfort Hall on 20th February as part of Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival, and Leicester Comedy Scene has two tickets to give away courtesy of the kind folks at Avalon Entertainment Ltd!

Of his latest live show, entitled Posturing Delivery, Russell says: "What if I’m one of the guys who never has a baby? Why is this not a 'male subject'? I plan to give birth, live on stage, then raise it - in front of you. Come along!"

FESTIVAL PREVIEW #2: Character and Sketch Comedy

Howdy folks, it's time for my second preview post for Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival - hooray!

Today I'm looking at some of the finest character comics and sketch groups performing over the 17-day laughathon.

Every stand-up has an onstage persona, that is to say even if they perform as themselves, it's usually an exaggerated or more entertaining version of themselves. But creating a whole new character and completely becoming that character onstage, allows a performer the freedom to say and do things they wouldn't dare to under their own name. A well-realised character can get away with the most horrendously inappropriate things, safe in the knowledge that people will never hold them responsible, only the character.

WIN A PAIR OF TICKETS to see Edward Aczel at The Belmont Hotel

Righty, following on from my Offbeat Stand-ups preview post, here's another awesome ticket competition for you lucky folks. Courtesy of Bottle Rocket Comedy Club, Leicester Comedy Scene has two tickets to give away to see the magnificent Edward Aczel performing his show 'Edward Aczel has no clear plan emerging' at the Belmont Hotel on Sat 23rd Feb, as part of Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival.

Edward Aczel is known as a hero of 'anti-comedy'. His style is shambolic, poorly presented and he has no confidence in his own skill as a stand-up. For anyone else, this combination would add up to a terrible, unwatchable show, but somehow in the hands of Aczel, it works. His complete lack of witty material and slapdash approach to delivery make for a unique and very funny show. And to prove it, he won the coveted Malcolm Hardee Award at Edinburgh in 2008 and was a runner-up in the 2005 BBC New Comedy Awards, alongside the then-unknown Sarah Millican.

FESTIVAL PREVIEW #1 - offbeat stand-ups

Right then, here we go... the festival brochure has been doing the rounds for quite a while now, and as the annual jamboree of mirth approaches, I am getting more and more people asking me which shows I would recommend going to see. Well, given that everyone's tastes are different when it comes to what makes them laugh, the simple answer to that is "depends what you're into, really".

Of course, if I just left it at that, it would constitute a massive cop-out on my part. So here for your delectation and rumination, I present the first of my festival preview posts, in which I take the intimidatingly vast hog-roast that is Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival and chop it up into easily-digestible bacon-bites for you (facon bites for veggies, obviously) I'll be looking at a different category of comedy in each post - today I present some of my favourite offbeat stand-ups.