It's launch day! Niche has looked through the entire festival brochure to find our highlights and recommendations.
From stand up, to improv, to musical comedy, and via several competitions - these are our highlights of Leicester Comedy Festival 2024:
Wygston's House
February 8, 15, and 22, 2024 at 8:30pm
Tickets: £10
Leicester's own improv group, The Same Faces return for their ninth year at Leicester Comedy Festival, with another round of improvised silliness. This short-form show will feature scenes, games, songs and one liners, all completely made up on the spot.
Regulars Tom Young, Allan Smith, and Dave Gotheridge will be joined by some of their talented friends, in order to bring you some of the best improvisation in the midlands, if not the country!
"This show is must-see and will definitely be a highlight of the up-and-coming Leicester Comedy Festival" ★★★★½ - What's Good to Do
"An endless feast of brilliant improv" - A Small Mind at the Theatre
"Short-form improv done the way it SHOULD be done" - Improv London
The Guildhall
February 9, 2024 at 6pm and 8pm
Tickets: £7.50
Boasting over 269,000 followers on TikTok and Instagram, Tom’s ‘wacky and wonderful humour’ draws people from all over the internet.
His debut Edinburgh Fringe show, ‘Hubba Hubba’ was an almost a sold-out run and described as ‘an hour-long tour de force’.
Tom was the reserve/runner up on BBC’s New Comedy Awards in 2022 along with the runner up for NextUp’s Biggest Award in Comedy for Best Show.
Curve
February 10, 2024 at 8pm
Tickets: £14
One of the stand outs from this year's Gala preview show, this is a wild night of comedy, cabaret, circus and music hosted by flâneur, raconteur and bon-viveur Marcel Lucont.
Marcel’s guests for this show are:
Amazi Hoops
Claire De Lunacy
Friz Frizzle
Pete Heat
"One of the finest nights in our fair city" - Time Out. "Debaucherous, delightful and debonair... Marcel knows how to put on one hell of a show" ★★★★.5 - PerthNow, Fringe World Festival. "A perfect night out" ★★★★★ Adelaide Advertiser.
The Big Difference
February 15, 2024 at 8pm
Tickets: £14
What’s a little evil amongst friends? Fresh from a complete sell-out extended run at the Edinburgh Fringe, award-winning gossip and TikTok starlet Daniel Foxx delivers a sensational show about childhood, Tilda Swinton and bullying (but in a chic way).
With his trademark wit and grandmother's pearls, he's taking us back to the 2000s, when the Special K diet was all the rage and the only queer representation was Jafar.
Firebug
February 17, 2024 at 6:20pm
Tickets: £12
Brand-new show from everyone's favourite gobby Manc Princess and Edinburgh Comedy Awards' Best Newcomer nominee.
Josh is also the co-host on Dave's Hard Sell with Darren Harriott and hit podcast Chatting with Cherubs.
"Must-see act" - Rolling Stone
The Y Theatre
February 18, 2024 at 6pm
Tickets: £17
Jess’ son’s joined a cult AND her cat’s learnt to talk – but despite all that she’s fine, actually. In fact she’s hurtling faster and hustling harder than ever for the things that she wants and needs.
A brand new stand-up show about passion, pace and purpose from the critically-acclaimed star of BBC’s QI, Live at the Apollo and C4’s Travel Man.
"A new fiercely funny strain of comedy" ★★★★ - The Times
Firebug
February 21, 2024 at 7pm
Tickets: £16
In 2020, the world changed forever, as three time Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee Kieran Hodgson moved to Scotland. Now he's travelling around the still-just-about United Kingdom to tell you how it's working out. For him and for the Scots.
"A delight to watch... every line is wired for laughter” ★★★★★ The Guardian
Menphys Hub
February 22, 2024 at 7:30pm
Tickets: £12
One of the sharpest new stars of British stand-up, and perhaps the only comedian whose career actually improved because of the pandemic. Scott’s ‘Stand Up from The Shed’ shows raised his profile to the point of a Live at the Apollo appearance.
He’s now using that profile to help raise money for local charity, Menphys, which will help it support more local children and young people with disabilities.
Just the Tonic at Hansom Hall
February 24, 2024 at 4pm (includes support act)
Tickets: £12.50
Vertigo is a punchline-packed show featuring submarines, relationships and the inevitable family drama. Hilarious, relatable,
From his highly controversial shocking suggestions for coping with the cost-of-living crisis if you have a big family, to his side-splitting fascination with accents and their effect when away from home, and his hilarious aversion to drinking with millennials, Burns makes the most of his exceptional wit to provide caustic observations on everything and anything, from the mundane quotidian to the meaning of life.
"If you want to see the future of Scottish stand-up, then see Connor Burns live - while you can still get a ticket" - Daniel Sloss
The Big Difference
February 24, 2024 at 4:30pm
Tickets: £8 (in aid of Big Difference charity)
Join comedian Sindhu Vee in conversation with Leicester Comedy Festival founder Geoff Rowe as they discuss Sindhu's comedy career.
Sindhu Vee is an award-winning comedian, writer and actor. Since swapping a career in investment banking for one in comedy, Sindhu has fast become one of the most exciting and sought-after talents on the UK circuit. In 2018 Sindhu took her eagerly-anticipated debut hour, Sandhog, to the Edinburgh Fringe and was nominated for the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer.
Phoenix
February 24-25, 2024 at 4:30pm
Tickets: £15
Since 2016, the award-winning Improbotics has brought robots to stages worldwide!
In this science comedy show, human actors perform with artificial intelligence. Improvisers are controlled by AI chatbots: the result is unpredictable human-machine hilarity. Followed by audience Q&A.
"Ground-breaking work... raises important philosophical questions" - FringeReview.co.uk
★★★★★ - Theatre & Tonic
★★★★ - Everything Theatre
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Leicester Comedy Festival runs February 7-25, 2024. The full line up can be found in its brochure, available around the city, and online.
