JANUARY COMEDY NEWS + SLEEPING BEAUTY PANTO REVIEW

Happy 1984 everyone!!

I hope you all had a jolly good festive break from the depressing reality of the world as it is, and made full use of the opportunity to stuff yourselves silly and drink yourselves into a merry stupor.

Seán Morley - in a basement near you tonight.

There's lots of comedy heading your way in Leicester to combat the inevitable January blues, starting with Comedy & Cocktails tonight at Manhattan34, which will be hosted by new comperes Lucy Thompson & Thomas Rackham (of TOAD Radio fame), who have taken over from Dave McGuckin as he prepares to leave our shores for the proud nation of Canada. Tonight's eclectic line-up features the always-excellent Seán Morley (listen to his outstanding BBC New Comedian of the Year set here), plus Tom King, Chris Wells, Scott Liversidge, Lindsey Santoro, Anthony Pollard and Jade Richardson, so get out and enjoy that lot tonight from 8pm!

REVIEW: Jonathan Pie at Hansom Hall / 'Yes Prime Minister' at The Little Theatre

Leicester was treated to a double dose of quality political satire on Thursday and Friday night, in the shape of two very different shows which embody two very different eras of politics and satire. Yes Prime Minister, although set in (almost) the present day, is very much rooted in a bygone age of politics and written in a style that has not graced our TV screens for many years. Whereas Jonathan Pie is very much satire for the modern 'social media' age, and even though this may lead you to suspect it is dumbed down for the 'attention-defecit' generation, it proved to be every bit as biting and well-written as the established classic that is Yes Prime Minister. There now follows a fairly lengthy review of both shows, along with a little bit of trivia and a couple of minor musings on the development of political satire over the past few decades.

Can't get no (ear)peace - Jonathan Pie

Brace yourselves for an autumnal comedy invasion! (2 of 2)

Hello again, and welcome to Part 2 of our round-up of all things comedic, Leicester-based and autumnal!

In our previous post (which you can read here) we detailed the 'Autumn Fridge' programme of locally-flavoured comedy treats on offer from the Leicester Fridge collective. Well now it's time to see what else is on offer over the next couple of months, and there's plenty of it...

Brace yourselves for an autumnal comedy invasion! (1 of 2)

Greetings fellow laugh-gannets, I do hope you all had a great summer. It was great to see so many awesome Edinburgh preview shows in Leicester, and then head up north to the Fringe itself in August. Whilst there, I was able to check out some great new shows, many of which are likely to be heading our way over the next few months, starting very soon indeed! All the comics have had their customary recovery period (known to the lay-person as September), and now, as the nights start to draw in, the nights out get funnier.
There is a whole host of choice comedic shenanigans heading our way in Autumn, so I'll stop waffling and get on with telling you exactly what to look out for!

PART ONE: AUTUMN FRIDGE

Those lovely folks at Leicester Fridge are always working behind the scenes in Leicester to bring you the very best of the local scene, and they've excelled themselves this time, by putting together a terrific programme of events that not only showcases the city's regular comedy nights, but adds to them with special one-off events, including a kids' comedy special for half term, various full Edinburgh shows, the odd new work in progress and a couple of charity specials. The full programme is as follows:

"OI MATE - CHEER UP, IT'S EDINBURGH PREVIEW SEASON!"

Greetings comedy-gannets! I trust you are having a pleasant summer so far, despite the whole country going batshit mental in the last couple of weeks.

There's been a lot of furious arguing going on, and everyone's been getting rather worked up about everything, so I think what we all need right now is a bloody good laugh to ease the tension. How lucky we are then, that Edinburgh Preview Season is upon us.

Every July, the city plays host to some of the finest comics in the land, who like to test out their Edinburgh shows on the refined palates of Leicester's comedy-savvy punters. This helps them to make sure that their new hour is as finely tuned as possible, ready for the month-long slog that is the Edinburgh Fringe.

So what cut-price delights can we expect to see this month?