Leicester Comedy Festival 2024 at The Y Theatre

Box Office 0116 255 7066

ytheatre.co.uk

WhAT’S ON?

We’ve got more shows than ever before for Leicester Comedy Festival 2024, from big names and rising stars to hilarious improv and family friendly shows - take a look!

Wed 7-Sun 25 February 2024 Diary LEICESTER COMEDY FESTIVAL DAY 7 7 8 8 9 9 10 10 10 11 14 15 16 17 18 18 18 19 21 22 23 24 25 25

SHOW An Interview With Mark Watson Mark Watson: Search Aurie Styla: The Aurator Get Off Live Comedy Fundraiser Vittorio Angelone: Who Do You Think You Are? I Am! Fin Taylor: Ask Your Mother!

John Kearns: The Varnishing Days Matt Green: That Guy Fesshole: Live Rosie Jones: Triple Threat Gary Meikle James Barr: Flamingo (WIP) Gay Comedy Night Count Arthur Strong In ‘And It’s Goodnight From Him’ Popcorn Funnies Jessica Fostekew: Mettle COBO: Comedy Shutdown - Love & Laughter Tour Ahir Shah: Ends Notflix Chloe Petts: If You Can’t Say Anything Nice CSI: Crime Scene Improvisation

Leicester Mercury Comedian Of The Year

Richard Herring: RHLSTP Comedy Heaven

THE UK KIDS’ COMEDY FESTIVAL 11 21 23

Rosie Jones: The Amazing Edie Eckhart Notflix Kids Graffiti Classics: The Comedy String Quaret

All information is correct at the time of going to press but The Y Theatre reserves the right to make such changes, as may become necessary, without prior notice.

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An Interview with Mark Watson WED 7 FEB • 6.30pm £8 / Joint ticket with main show £26 Join Mark Watson in conversation with Leicester Comedy Festival founder Geoff Rowe as they discuss Mark’s comedy career. In aid of registered charity Big Difference Company.

mark watson search

wed 7 feb • 8.15pm • 14+ £20 Mark Watson’s 12-year-old son has just got a phone. His 70-year-old dad has been through the most frightening experience of his life. Both a dad and a kid himself, around the midpoint of his life, the Taskmaster star and multiple award-winner. He’ll consider the search for meaning that we’re all on, with or without Google. There’ll be a lot of jokes, and a show that’s different every night.

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WITTY, WARM, PERFECTLY JUDGED The Telegraph

Get off live comedy fundraiser thu 8 Feb • 8.30pm £12 Get Off Live Comedy! joins Leicester Comedy Festival with another star-studded night of comedy, raising money for the independent HR organisation set up to tackle sexual harassment in the live comedy industry. Hosted by the amazing Kiri Pritchard-McLean and Nina Gilligan (Get Off! co-founders) alongside big names generously giving their time for free. Previous acts include: Sara Pascoe, Russell Howard & Nish Kumar.

aurie styla the aurator

thu 8 feb • 6pm • 16+ £14 After a year of performing worldwide, award-winning comedian Aurie Styla is back on tour, with his biggest one to date. Join him as he talks about this wild world, and his journey to make sense of it, in The Aurator!

As seen on Comedy Central Live, Jonathan Ross’ Comedy Club (ITV), Life’s A Pitch (Sky), Don’t Hate The Playaz (ITV), The Stand-Up Sketch Show (ITV2) & more.

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UNIQUE, FUNNY, HONEST, AND GENUINELY UPLIFTING The New Current

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vittorio angelone

who do you think you are? i am!

FRI 9 feb • 7pm £17 Viral sensation and all-round great guy Vittorio Angelone is one of comedy’s fastest-rising stars.

Following his 5-star, sold-out, award-nominated debut (which solved literally every problem in the world) his new show looks inward to find out who exactly he thinks he is.

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JUST WOW The Guardian

fin taylor

ask your mother!

FRI 9 Feb • 9pm £13.50 Fresh from the viral success of his hit web series Fin vs The Internet, that comedian your mother doesn’t like you seeing shares a new hour of brutally funny stand-up for 2024. When he’s not in a roll neck making influencers squirm, he’s appeared on BBC’s Live at the Apollo, Have I Got News For You and The Mash Report, and Comedy Central’s Roast Battle.

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GLEEFULLY PROVOCATIVE AND PACKED WITH BIG, HARD LAUGHS The Guardian

John kearns

Matt green

sat 10 Feb• 3pm • 14+ £18.50

SaT 10 Feb • 6pm £13.50

Stand up comedian to the stars, John Kearns, returns following a sold-out show with us last year. The Varnishing Days is his heart-stopping, glasses-dropping, hard-rocking, wig-shaking, levothyroxine-taking, knee-knocking, bootlicking, justifying, teeth rattling, digressing new show.

The debut national tour from that guy you’ve seen on Twitter being funny about politics. A stand up show featuring jokes about politics and jokes not about politics.

That probably covers it. Watch him try to make sense of the world as we head into another year of elections, culture wars and who knows what else. Plus discover: exactly who is that guy behind the videos?

the varnishing days

that guy

REALLY FUNNY The Scotsman

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Broadway Baby

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Rosie jones triple threat sun 11 feb • 7.30pm £15

fesshole: live SAT 10 Feb • 8:30pm • 18+ £15 Forgive me Leicester, for I have sinned!

Following a sell-out 2022 show, Rob Manuel, creator of Fesshole and B3ta, returns to Leicester with the internet’s naughtiest, funniest, cringiest confessions.

Rosie Jones is on the road for a UK tour and, boy, she is EXCITED. Join Rosie as she ponders whether she is a national treasure, a little prick, or somewhere in between! This show is guaranteed to be full of unapologetic cheekiness, nonsensical fun and unadulterated JOY from the triple threat herself.

BSL/Captions available on request

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DOWNRIGHT HILARIOUS Edinburgh Festivals Magazine

Expect an evening of some of the best and worst confessions known to mankind as Rob digs into the bin of unpublished confessions and uncovers the depths of human grotesqueness. Full of humour & heart, this show is not to be missed!

james barr

flamingo (work in progress) thu 15 feb • 7.30pm £7 An hour of fearless stand-up comedy from not-quitenational treasure James Barr. Outrageous punchlines and unapologetic storytelling. James explores a brutal break up and the chaos that followed. Including a face-off with Piers Morgan that broke his DMs.

gary meikle wed 14 feb • 7:30pm £22.50 Heya guys, thanks for thinking about coming back again to watch me build up the show, so what can you expect? Well I’m calling the show Facts so you’ll hear lots of them and my take it them obviously but as usual it’ll be focused around my family life as a single papa and a dad to two girls that are in process of rinsing me for every penny I have for the their up coming wedding.

Host of London’s very popular LGBTQ+ comedy night All Barr Huns, James keeps busy by spending his mornings hosting The Hits Radio Breakfast Show alongside Fleur East and can often be seen on TV battling against Piers Morgan as the voice of “a wokey comedian” (Piers Morgan).

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gay comedy night fri 16 feb • 7.30pm • 16+ pay what you feel The longest running (we think) gay comedy night is back, platforming hilarious LGBTQ+ comedians for over 26 years. This year, as always, we’ll bring you some of the best LGBTQ+ comics on the scene, nationally and from the Midlands - previous acts have included Rosie Jones, Jess Fostekew, Zoe Lyons, Graham Norton, Susan Calman, and Jen Brister.

Compere Sian Davies will be joined by the hilarious Joe Burkewood, Dan Tiernan, Sikisa and Olga Koch.

count arthur strong

In ‘And It’s Goodnight From Him’ SAT 17 Feb • 8pm £24 Part one of Count Arthur Strong’s farewell tour. (Of the World. Potentially. (Certainly Jersey). Having consulted with top Harley Street specialists, the St Anne’s Jombulance Brigade and Professor Twitty, that did covid, (the bald one), Count Arthur Strong has decided to gradually phase in his farewell tour over a, yet to be specified number of parts, because of the likelihood of people doing ‘Cold Turkey’ in theatres over him.

This event is Pay What You Feel which supports our continued work with new artists.

Jessica fostekew mettle

sun 18 feb • 6pm £17 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 Channel 4’s Travel Man. 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.

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FIERCELY FUNNY The Times

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popcorn funnies In Association with BFI Network sun 18 feb • 3pm £8 / £6 A Kitchen Olympiad, Godlike chickens and who knows what else! Welcome to the world of short cinema – comedy films that range from the bizarre to the outright hilarious. A showcase of the best of the Midlands film scene – cherry picked beauties to delight the comedy connoisseur. (tldr - You get to see some awesome comedy shorts, chat to the BFI NETWORK, see a film

by Joe Lycett, have a Q & A session with the filmmakers and a networking session after!)

Cobo: comedy shutdown

love & laughter tour sun 18 feb • 8pm £18 COBO: Comedy Shutdown brings a Leicester Comedy Festival special.

Round up your friends & family and join us for an uplifting night of laughter!

The line-up features, Shabz Kariem (BBC, ITV), Kat B (BBC, MTV), Kyrah Gray (Netflix, Comedy Central Live) and Michael Akadiri (ITV2, CH4).

Ahir Shah ends

mon 18 feb • 8pm £15 2023 Sky Edinburgh Comedy Award-winner Ahir Shah comes to The Royal Court with his latest hour Ends: a show about family, immigration, marriage, history, politics, and beans.

His last Fringe show, 2019’s Dots, is now a special on HBO Max. As seen on Mock the Week, The Mash Report, QI, Live at the Apollo, Frankie Boyle’s New World Order, Have I Got News For You, and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown.

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If you’ve never been to one of these nights before then get ready for an evening of rip-roaring, back slapping belly laughs!

TRULY OUTSTANDING Evening Standard

notflix

chloe petts

wed 21 feb • 8pm £14

thu 22 Feb • 7.30pm • 14+ £15

The “Spice Girls of improv” return in their five star, sellout, totally improvised musical comedy Notflix.

Fresh from her smash-hit Edinburgh Fringe run and Soho Theatre sell-out debut, Chloe Petts returns with her follow-up hour. Everyone complimented her on how polite she was with big issues in the last show so now she’s cashing in those points and plans on being really rude.

Expect routines on Greta Thunberg, the footie and calling you all a bunch of virgins. A first show that was worth waiting for.

the improvised comedy musical

Inspired by audience suggestions, the all-female cast improvise the musical version of your favourite films, creating movies with 100% more singing, 99% more women and a full live band.

if you can’t say anything nice

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DEFINITELY ONE TO WATCH EdFringe Review

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csi: crime scenE improvisation fri 23 feb • 8.30pm £12 / £10 No one knows who the killer is, not even the cast!

Mirth meets murder in the world’s daftest who-dunnit.

The award-winning, sell-out festival favourite returns to Leicester with rip-roaring crime comedies made up entirely on the spot.

Who? What? Where? The choice is yours: The problem is theirs.

leicester mercury comedian of the year competition 2024 sat 24 feb • 7:30pm • 16+ £20 / £18 Now celebrating its 30th edition, the stellar list of past winners include Josh Widdicombe, Johnny Vegas, Jason Manford, Seann Walsh and Rhod Gilbert. Join us as we present this year’s finest up and coming acts, nominated by top comedy promoters from across the UK.

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A serious comedy competition, headlined by 2023 winner Daniel Petrie, hosted by the fabulous Sindhu Vee (Mock the Week, QI, Live at the Apollo).

richard herring’s

comedy heaven

The Wee Review

leicester square theatre podcast sun 25 feb • 3:30pm • 14+ £20

Richard Herring brings his critically acclaimed podcast, RHLSTP, back to Leicester Comedy Festival.

His interview podcast is usually recorded in London’s glittering West End at the Leicester Square Theatre, but now it’s going on the road.

RHLSTP sees him interview top comedians in front of a live audience for his podcast but includes all the chat that is too controversial for broadcast!

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sun 25 feb • 7:30pm • 16+ £18 The spectacular finale show for Leicester Comedy Festival 2024, returns this time at the iconic The Y Theatre. Some of the best acts of the festival gather to raise money for good causes and see the festival out in style.

Hosted by MC Alex Hylton, featuring Fatiha El-Ghorri, Darren Harriott, Plastic Jeezus, Tamsyn Kelly and headlined by Nabil Abdulrashid.

rosie jones: The amazing edie eckhart sun 11 feb • 3.30pm £4 Are you ready to meet the amazing Edie Eckhart, the hilariously brilliant children’s book character from comedian Rosie Jones? Rosie will introduce Edie, her friends and family and you’ll hear about Edie’s experiences starting secondary school and navigating the perils of the first term – and beyond!

FRESH, FUNNY AND ULTRA COOL Jacqueline Wilson EDIE IS A REAL AND RELATABLE CHARACTER, FLAWED, FEARLESS AND FUNNY, WHO JUST HAPPENS TO HAVE A DISABILITY. A HUGELY ENJOYABLE READ The Scotsman

notflix kids wed 21 feb • 5.30pm £12 / £10 A family-friendly version of the five star, sell-out, totally improvised musical comedy Notflix. Inspired by audience suggestions, the all-female cast improvise the musical version of your favourite films, creating movies with 100% more singing, 99% more women and a full live band.

SPONTANEOUS, SURPRISING & DELIGHTFUL FringeBiscuit

graffiti classic

the comedy string quartet fri 23 feb • 6pm • 4+ £16 / £14 Musicians can be comedians, dancers and storytellers as well as just virtuosos on their instruments. Street performance meets comedy meets folk songs meets… a string quartet!? See for yourself!

A SIMPLY WONDERFUL SHOW The Times

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book your tickets today!

Box office 0116 255 7066

Our box office is open Monday to Friday 9am-5pm and one hour before a show.

Online www.ytheatre.co.uk

You can book tickets online 24 hours a day and right up until a show starts on our website.

Refunds

Tickets are non-refundable except in exceptional circumstances. To be agreed with management.

General Terms

The Y Theatre reserves the right to: • Refuse ticket holders entrance or ask them to leave the venue • Introduce or change special offers, ticket prices and fees • Change seat location of a ticket without prior notice

Concessions

Fees

We charge a booking fee of £1.50 per ticket, capped at £10 per transaction. This helps us to stay open and keep bringing you the shows you want to see.

Protect your booking

You can now add refund protection for your tickets for £1.50 per ticket. This enables you to get a full refund should you or anyone in your party be unable to attend due to injury, illness, adverse weather, vehicle breakdown, and many other unforeseen instances.

Where a reduced price is given concessions are available for children under 16, full time students, people unemployed and in receipt of benefits, and senior citizens unless otherwise stated.

Please be prepared to show appropriate identification on entry.

Advance permission should be sought from the venue for the use of flash photography or filming equipment.

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Car Parking

East Street NCP is our closest car park, with discounted tickets available when you book.

Please ask for details.

A594

7 EAST STREET, LEICESTER, LE1 6EY BOX OFFICE: 0116 255 7066 YTHEATRE.CO.UK

A594

DOVER STREET

NCP

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For our full access information and how to join our access scheme, please visit our website, or contact our box office.

HOW TO FIND US

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Our stalls and bar have step-free access from the street, and there is a loading bay in front of the building that is suitable for drop off. For all shows we reserve seats to suit a variety of access needs until the day of the show or until it is sold out, so you can access our shows no matter when you book.

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more great comedy coming in 2024!

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OUR STAGE LEICESTER’S FUTURE

Help us preserve Leicester’s oldest surviving theatre...

As a small independant venue without core funding The Y Theatre shares the current challenges of other arts sector organisations. We still need your help to ensure this Victorian treasure survives in the long term.

Donate today! www.ytheatre.co.uk

THANK YOU

Grace Petrie, John Helps, Mercer Building Solutions, Jamie, Sam & Arabella Mollart and Rock Kitchen Harris.

A special thank you to Stocks Taylor Benson for their hard work and generous support in the creation of our new brand.

£25+ Your name added to our digital thank you wall

£200+ Above benefits plus your name or dedication on a theatre seat

£500+ Above benefits plus your name or business in our brochure