REVIEW: Jonathan Pie at Hansom Hall / 'Yes Prime Minister' at The Little Theatre

Leicester was treated to a double dose of quality political satire on Thursday and Friday night, in the shape of two very different shows which embody two very different eras of politics and satire. Yes Prime Minister, although set in (almost) the present day, is very much rooted in a bygone age of politics and written in a style that has not graced our TV screens for many years. Whereas Jonathan Pie is very much satire for the modern 'social media' age, and even though this may lead you to suspect it is dumbed down for the 'attention-defecit' generation, it proved to be every bit as biting and well-written as the established classic that is Yes Prime Minister. There now follows a fairly lengthy review of both shows, along with a little bit of trivia and a couple of minor musings on the development of political satire over the past few decades.

Can't get no (ear)peace - Jonathan Pie

Brace yourselves for an autumnal comedy invasion! (2 of 2)

Hello again, and welcome to Part 2 of our round-up of all things comedic, Leicester-based and autumnal!

In our previous post (which you can read here) we detailed the 'Autumn Fridge' programme of locally-flavoured comedy treats on offer from the Leicester Fridge collective. Well now it's time to see what else is on offer over the next couple of months, and there's plenty of it...

Brace yourselves for an autumnal comedy invasion! (1 of 2)

Greetings fellow laugh-gannets, I do hope you all had a great summer. It was great to see so many awesome Edinburgh preview shows in Leicester, and then head up north to the Fringe itself in August. Whilst there, I was able to check out some great new shows, many of which are likely to be heading our way over the next few months, starting very soon indeed! All the comics have had their customary recovery period (known to the lay-person as September), and now, as the nights start to draw in, the nights out get funnier.
There is a whole host of choice comedic shenanigans heading our way in Autumn, so I'll stop waffling and get on with telling you exactly what to look out for!

PART ONE: AUTUMN FRIDGE

Those lovely folks at Leicester Fridge are always working behind the scenes in Leicester to bring you the very best of the local scene, and they've excelled themselves this time, by putting together a terrific programme of events that not only showcases the city's regular comedy nights, but adds to them with special one-off events, including a kids' comedy special for half term, various full Edinburgh shows, the odd new work in progress and a couple of charity specials. The full programme is as follows:

"OI MATE - CHEER UP, IT'S EDINBURGH PREVIEW SEASON!"

Greetings comedy-gannets! I trust you are having a pleasant summer so far, despite the whole country going batshit mental in the last couple of weeks.

There's been a lot of furious arguing going on, and everyone's been getting rather worked up about everything, so I think what we all need right now is a bloody good laugh to ease the tension. How lucky we are then, that Edinburgh Preview Season is upon us.

Every July, the city plays host to some of the finest comics in the land, who like to test out their Edinburgh shows on the refined palates of Leicester's comedy-savvy punters. This helps them to make sure that their new hour is as finely tuned as possible, ready for the month-long slog that is the Edinburgh Fringe.

So what cut-price delights can we expect to see this month?

WIN tickets to Gein's Family Giftshop & Goose at the Little Theatre!

Hello comedy fans, it's been a while, hope you're keeping well...
I also hope you've been keeping up with the city's recent comedy happenings, using the regular listings and updates that are posted by the lovely folks at Leicester Fridge on their facebook page.

Here at Leicester Comedy Scene, we're pretty excited to have been contacted by the agents for award-winners Goose and Gein's Family Giftshop, to spread the word about their fantastic double-header happening at the Little Theatre on May 25/26, and to offer a pair of free tickets for each show to you lucky people! These really are two fantastic shows, so I would highly recommend clearing a space in your diary to go and see them...

Nominations announced for Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival awards

The awards panellists for Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival held their annual bunfight last night, and the nominations have been announced for this year's awards, to be announced at the annual ceremony on Monday 21st March.

The nominations in full are:

Best Show:
Andrew O’Neill is Trapped Down A Well
Grainne Maguire: Great People Making Great Choices
Joanna Neary: Faceful of Issues
John Gordillo: Progress in Work
Pat Cahill: Panjandum

Best Debut Show:
Dude Looks Like A Lady
Glenn Moore: Glengarry Glen Glenn
Lucy Thompson: Lady
Pete Otway: Six Years From Then
Rob Kemp: Hubris

Best Venue (over 200 capacity):
Curve
De Montfort Hall
Just the Tonic - Leicester at Hansom Hall
The Little Theatre

Best Venue (under 200 capacity):
Manhattan34
The Cookie
The Criterion Free House
The Globe

Best New Venue:
Bob's Blundabus
BrewDog Leicester
O2 Academy Leicester
Peter Pizzeria
The Soundhouse

Best Promoter:
Jokes On Us
Dead Cat Comedy Club
Just the Tonic
The Cookie Comedy Club
Bottle Rocket Comedy Club

Contribution to the Festival:
Love Loughborough, Loughborough College and Melton BID
Everards Brewery
Leicester Fridge
Bob Slayer & Heroes

Make Me Happy community award:
Feed Bellies Not Bins
Fine and Funny Dining
Laughing with LOROS
Loving Laughing
Sharon Lockyer & Centre for Comedy Studies Research

Liberty Award for spirit of the festival:
Anthony King
Jokes On Us
St Martins Square & Comedy Box
14/48 Leicester
High Sheriffs of Leicestershire & Rutland
Weirdos Comedy

Best Poster: vote for your favourite here
President Obonjo Stole My Identity
Karen Sherrard: A Fete Worse than Death
Rob Kemp: Hubris
Michael Brunstrom: The Haywain Reloaded
Paul Foot's Game of Dangers
Adam Broomfield-Strawn: Falling Dumb
Ian Hall: IANertia
Jasper Cromwell Jones & Friends

Well done to all those nominated and good luck! :)

DLCF 2016 REVIEW - our favourite shows of the festival

.....and it's all over for another year. 

The biggest ever Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival ended yesterday with the final 35-ish shows of a whopping 780 that have taken place over the last 3 weeks.

Personally I probably saw around 30-35 shows (a little less than usual, having missed the middle of the festival due to illness), so obviously I missed plenty of great ones (particularly gutted not to have seen John Kearns). But I'm glad to say the ones I did see were of a consistently high quality, with these ones in particular standing out:

DLCF PREVIEW: PART ONE - We Could Be Heroes (at the Criterion)

Here we go again comedy fans - Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival is once again fast approaching, and so begins Leicester Comedy Scene's annual series of preview posts giving you the lowdown on what's in store at the 2016 festival. This year, each preview post will be centred around a venue or series of venues, in order to give you a broad flavour of what's going on where this year. Since a lot of press coverage focuses on the big TV acts appearing at De Montfort Hall or Curve, I thought I'd start by exploring a small and friendly corner of the festival, with a distinctly alternative flavour...

Heroes @ The Criterion & Bob's Blundabus.

This man used to be a jockey: Bob Slayer

5 Mixed bill showcase events that will help you decide what to see at the Comedy Festival

Face it, folks. The holiday period is over.
The leftovers have been guzzled, the hangovers suffered, the previously fart-filled house has been aired, and a nation is wearily going back to work and grudgingly re-adjusting to normal life.


It's not all doom and gloom though, because it means there's now less than a month to go until Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival starts - HOORAY!!! The fest proper begins on Wednesday Feb 3rd at which point over 700 shows will be occurring in the city and county, for 19 solid days of laughter. You can find official festival brochures all over the city, and all the shows are searchable online at the festival's website

Brochures available at a bar, cafe, takeaway near you!

Obviously it's pretty tough choosing from 700 shows, but luckily for us there are a few mixed-bill showcase gigs happening before then, to help you decide who to see at the festival: