Just the Tonic offer - Festival Day Tickets and Johnny Vegas for £2.50!!

Just to let you know, Just the Tonic are running some fantastic offers for their festival shows - as well as 'Five Pound Fridays', in which you can see 5 great stand-ups for just a fiver, they are also offering day tickets for their weekend shows, meaning you can buy one ticket and see all the shows on that day at a special discounted price, saving up to £12.50 - woohoo!

The tickets allow you to stay in the venue between shows, where food & drink will be served, and stay around for the late night bar after the Saturday shows (careful now). Here are those weekend line-ups in full (click on the date for tickets):

Saturday 9th Feb - Keith Farnan, Alfie Moore, Jeff Innocent, Tim Clark, Just the Tonic Comedy Club
Sunday 10th Feb - Shappi Korsandi, Johnny Vegas, Rob Deering, So On And So Forth plus others
Saturday 16th Feb - Gary Delaney, Mark Little, Rob Rouse, Wil Hodgson, Mark Nelson plus may more
Sunday 17th Feb - The Nosie Next Door, The Silky Pair, Francesca Martinez
Saturday 23rd Feb - Just the Tonic Comedy Cub, John Robins, Ivan Brackenbury plus more
Sunday 24th Feb - Seann Walsh, Shazia Mirza, Casual Violence plus others

Some top names in there I think you'll agree!

They also have a super-special deal on for this Sunday afternoon (10th Feb) - the unpredictable whirlwind of comedy Johnny Vegas will be appearing on Mark Olver's Dancing About Architecture chat show, and a limited number of tickets are half price (just £2.50 for a bona-fide comedy legend!!) To get your tickets, visit http://www.justthetonic.com/Leicester-Comedy/shows/sunday-10-feb-2013/945/ and enter the special promo code JOHNNYCHAT

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.

Two special shows left this year at JTT

Nobody's at work, everybody's either drunk and already sick of mince pies, or grinding their teeth and elbowing fellow last-minute shoppers in TK Maxx - it's an unmistakably British Christmas!
For those of you who make it through to this evening without being locked up for drunkenness or shopping rage, Just the Tonic have one more Christmas show tonight, featuring Phil Nicol, Philberto, Sam Avery and Tim Clark.

Obviously there's nothing to laugh at over Christmas itself, as we all silently and solemnly contemplate the birth of Jesus for three days. Fact.
But there is one more comedy show to be squeezed in before 2013 slaps us sharply upside the head, and that's the Just the Tonic New Year's Eve extravaganza starring the multi-talented Phil Nicol, anarchic physical comedian Wes Zaharuk, compere/owner/keeper of the booze Darrell Martin and headliner Ivan Brackenbury - the most inappropriate hospital radio DJ you've ever heard, and one of the funniest acts I've seen all year. His set is an absolute barrage of delightfully wrong gags and I can't think of a better way of seeing in the new year.

Right, that's me finished for 2012 - a massive 'thank you' to everybody who has visited and subscribed, liked, shared and retweeted my posts, and an equally massive 'thank you' to all the performers, promoters, venue owners and staff that have put so much effort into keeping us muggles entertained all year - we are quite literally not worthy. See you in January folks!

Comedy for rich and poor alike this weekend

The ever-increasing divide between rich and poor will be in sharp focus this weekend in Leicester, with gravelly-voiced Welsh superstar Rhod Gilbert performing two nights at DeMontfort Hall (Friday and Saturday). Tickets are predictably not cheap at 25 quid, but if you're one of the lucky few with any wages left this month, tickets are available here: http://www.demontforthall.co.uk/events/events.php/2012/841/rhod-gilbert/

For those with a slightly more modest budget, Friday night sees the return of Five Pound Friday at Just The Tonic. This week's budget bonanza features Ivan Brackenbury, the inept and inappropriate hospital radio DJ, with support from bogus clairvoyant Ian D Montford, deadpan Canadian import Jason John Whitehead and regular compere Romesh Ranganathan. To get tickets for just five of your actual British pounds, go here http://www.justthetonic.com/Leicester-comedy/shows/friday-22-jun-2012/713/ and enter the promo code FIVERFRIDAY. If you can't make it, the same line-up appears again on Saturday, but not for five quid.