SCOTTISH stand-up comic Frankie Boyle and radio stalwarts Punt and Dennis are the big draws of Southport Comedy Week, which begins today.
The annual Sefton festival plays host to the usual mix of headline names and an extensive “fringe” festival of quirky events, including the established Drink Up Stand Up comedy pub crawl.
It is the first national tour from Boyle, a regular on BBC2’s Mock the Week, who appears at Southport Theatre on October 28, and tickets have already sold out.
Before that, former Mary Whitehouse Experience players, Radio 4 leading comedy lights, and tongue-in-cheek “kings of satire” Punt and Dennis bring their Stuff and Nonsense tour to Southport Arts Centre this Saturday, and Phoenix Nights’ Justin Moorhouse follows on October 26 with his debut Edinburgh Festival show, Who’s the Daddy.
Punters also have the chance to catch up and coming talent throughout the festival.
This Sunday sees Liverpool stand up Chris Cairns compere the Best Of Tongue In Cheek at Southport Arts Centre, joined by comedians Mat Reed, Isma Almas and Daliso Chaponda.
Other events at Southport Arts Centre include Home-made Shakespeare on October 18, You Don’t Need To Know That, inspired by Kafka’s The Trial, on October 22, a screening of Thank You For Smoking on October 23, and Middle Ground Theatre’s adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Earnest from October 25 to 27.
Nia Valerio, from Sefton Council’s tourism team, said: “This year’s fringe programme really is action-packed and the town will be buzzing with a wide range of smaller, intimate gigs as well as the main headline events.”
The Prince of Wales Hotel is the starting point for the Drink Up - Stand Up event on Monday, October 22. This “pub crawl with a difference” covers four venues with four comedians and a compere leading 100 people through the resort.
Last but not least, Formby comedy night, The Squirrel’s Nuts, travels north to the Scarisbrick Hotel on Wednesday, October 24.
Compere as usual will be Brendan Riley who will also appear at the Arts Centre the following night in his one-man show Brendan Riley’s Happy Days, in which the comic peruses whether happiness is a matter of chance or a state of mind.
Sadly, there is still no explanation why the 11-day festival is heralded as a “comedy week”.
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