Comedy Gigs Of The Week: Frogs, Buckets, Boots, But No Aliens
By Andrew Dipper on January 10, 2012 in Stage
Hello and welcome to 2012. Where are the aliens? I was expecting aliens.
As usual with this column, we start our working week at the Newcastle Stand. The Stand’s comedy connoisseur collection continues tonight, with political comedian Mark Thomas the big name on offer.
Having previously tackled the arms trade, Coca-Cola and the Serious Organised Crime Act in previous shows, Mark decided to take a relaxing stroll last summer – along the Israeli Barrier in the West Bank. This show, Walking The Wall, is the result: a fascinating political narrative that just about manages to tow the line between education and stand-up. A must see if you think there’s more to comedy than man drawers and people remembering things.
See Hilarity Bites’ show at Darlington Arts Centre for further information. The most alternative of alternative stand-ups Tony Law headlines this one on Friday, with support from Benny Boot – who I don’t know a great deal about, to be honest – and two-time Scottish Comedian of the Year finalist Ray Bradshaw.
Not long ago I travelled to Manchester’s Frog and Bucket Comedy Club to catch Tony Law’s newest show, which was lauded by his peers at the Edinburgh Fringe. It’s no surprise, really, since a lot of his material is filled with comedy in-jokes – and a fair bit of it is total nonsense. At times his comedy can be testing; but he’s a lot of fun. And at £9 a ticket you can’t go wrong. Buy ‘em here.
We’re back at the Newcastle Stand on Saturday, this time for Carey Marx, Andy White, Kai Humphries, Holly Burn and Jonathan Mayor. Regular readers of this column – are there any?! – will recognise Kai Humphries’ name: he’s been touring with TV comic Daniel Sloss for quite some time now, which can only help with his writing. I doubt Kai will ever win the critics over, but punters will rarely be disappointed – and if you like silly humour you’ll love him.
Carey Marx headlines this gig, too, who’s producing some excellent thought-provoking comedy at the moment. I caught him at last year’s Fringe and I’m looking forward to seeing him again this weekend.
And you might as well sleep at the Newcastle Stand overnight (don’t try it – you will be arrested), as Gavin Webster’s Northumbrian Assembly returns on Sunday. I went to Gavin’s first show at the Newcastle Stand a couple of months ago and it was lots of fun. Do attend.
As ever, Comedy Gigs of the Week is brought to you by our good chum Andrew Dipper, editor of GiggleBeats.co.uk. Sadists amongst you can follow him on Twitter here: @AndrewDipper.
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Comedy Gigs Of The Week | Our pals at @GiggleBeats are back, featuring @StandNewcastle http://t.co/ZGw7kw5s
Tonight's @markthomasinfo show is @kyeotv's comedy gig of the week! Find out what all the fuss is about here: http://t.co/hU76VuIt
My @kyeotv column is back, and this week features @StandNewcastle and @HilarityBites: http://t.co/MUB8QhPE #nefollowers #comedy