Cookies, Fridges & Blundabuses - it must be Edinburgh Preview season again! (PART 1 OF 3)

"Ooh it comes around so quickly every year doesn't it?" is the kind of vacuous twaddle you hear dribbling out of people's sound-holes every time an annual event is looming. Well none of that here - Leicester Comedy Scene so enjoyed the last Edinburgh preview season that we're literally foaming at the mouth at the prospect of more Fringe previews, rendering us unable to utter even the most basic inane small talk. So here we go with the first of three posts detailing the various delights we can look forward to in Leicester during late June and July (which shall hitherto be referred to as 'preview season').

So who's putting on previews this year then? First up, The Cookie. They always put on a humdinger of a preview season and this year is no different. They present a mixture of well known telly-fodder, high-end circuit comics and a couple of top quality alternative acts. Shows are taking place at The Cookie and The Globe, with tickets priced between 5 and 10 squid, which you can buy here. This is the full line-up:

THE COOKIE

Saturday 13th June - Daniel Nicholas: Reverb
Tuesday 23rd June - Hal Cruttenden + Funmbi Omotayo
Thursday 25th June - Luisa Omielan 'Am I Right Ladies'
Wednesday 1st July - Joe Lycett + Pippa Evans 

Thursday 2nd July - Andrew Lawrence 

Tuesday 7th July - James Acaster + Nish Kumar 

Wednesday 8th July - Rob Rouse + Finn Taylor 

Thursday 9th July - Alex Edelman + Alfie Brown 

Monday 13th July - Hardeep Singh Kohli 

Tuesday 14th July - Rhys James + Lloyd Griffith 

Tuesday 21st July - Rob Beckett + Elliot Steel & Jake Lambert 

Thursday 23rd July - Andrew Ryan + Nathan Caton 

COOKIE COMEDY CLUB @ THE GLOBE 

Monday 6th July - Aisling Bea + Liam Williams 

Thursday 9th July - Charlie Baker + Phil Jerrod 

Wednesday 15th July - Iain Stirling + Ahir Shah 

Wednesday 22nd July - Joel Dommett + Ivo Graham

Lyrical & insightful - Liam Williams

Obviously there are many comics here offering many different styles here, so which ones you choose to go to are entirely down to your own tastes. Personally, the three shows I'm most looking forward to seeing are:

1) The lyrical and insightful social commentary of Liam Williams paired with British Comedy Award winner Aisling Bea

2) The wild-eyed, stream-of-consciousness randomness of DLCF 'Best Festival Debut' winner Phil Jerrod

3) The intriguing pairing of Fosters Best Newcomer winner Alex Edelman, known for his slick style and self-assured stage presence, with Alfie Brown, who can be something of a loose canon comedically speaking, yet always has many interesting and thought-provoking points to make in his shows.

Intriguing - 'Reverb' by Dan Nicholas

I can also highly recommend the political and personal word-cannon that is Ahir Shah, the intriguing and emotionally charged reverse love story 'Reverb', by Leicester's own Daniel Nicholas, intelligently funny discourse on identity and society at large from Nish Kumar, and the hugely popular self-empowerment fest that is 'Am I Right Ladies' from Luisa Omielan.

That's just my opinion though - check out all the acts on Youtube if you're bored one evening, and get yourself some tickets for the ones you like, by going to the Cookie's ticket website.

That's more than enough to digest for now - but don't forget to check out Parts two and three of our preview season round-up to find out what Leicester Fridge, Bottle Rocket Comedy and Bob Slayer's Heroes are planning for Edinburgh preview season...