Preview: Barnard Castle Comedy Festival

MARK WATSON HEADLINES THE FIRST EVER BARNARD CASTLE COMEDY FESTIVAL 

Barnard Castle Comedy Festival

Barnard Castle The Witham Arts Centre

Saturday 18 July 2015

TV star Mark Watson is to headline the first ever Barnard Castle Comedy Festival.

The award-winning comedian, who has a huge array of TV credits including Mock The Week and Never Mind The Buzzcocks, will perform alongside a host of stars at The Witham arts centre on Saturday 18 July for a full day of world class comedy.

Mark Watson Photo: Tom Stanier

The confirmation of Mark Watson as the festival's headliner means the line-up for Teesdale's first ever comedy festival is now complete, with the Edinburgh Festival Award Winner joining Alex Horne (8.30pm), Jo Caulfield (4.30pm), Tony Law (3pm), Lost Voice Guy (1.30pm) and Lee Kyle (12pm) on the bill.

Festival organiser Peter Dixon said: "We are thrilled that Mark Watson is headlining our first Barnard Castle Comedy Festival. His appearance fits perfectly with the line-up that we had already secured for the day.  This is the second time Mark will have performed in Barnard Castle as he was booked to play our first show at the refurbished Witham. Delays to the building work at the time meant we had to find an alternative venue so it's fantastic that we have been able to invite he back to perform on the Witham stage. His performance two years ago in Barnard Castle topped off a very special gala performance.  Anyone who saw that show then will tell you what a what an incredible show it was. Mark's career has gone from strength to strength since he last appeared for us.  He's currently in the process of recording two DVDs of his recent shows, both of which have been huge critical and audience successes."

Mark Watson Photo: Tom Stanier             

 Mark Watson is one of the most talked-about British comedians to emerge in recent years. Not only a regular on hit comedy panels, Mark has been the face of programmes such as BBC Four’s We Need Answers and BBC Radio 4’s Mark Watson Makes The World Substantially Better.  He has also appeared on Have I Got News For You, Would I Lie To You? Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow and Channel 4’s Comedy Gala.

Not only a stand-up, Mark has written four novels: Bullet Points (2004), A Light-Hearted Look At Murder (2007), Eleven (2010), and The Knot (2012). He is also responsible for the now famous day-long comedy shows in aid of Comic Relief.

 The Barnard Castle Comedy Festival is organised by Teesdale comedy promoters Funny Way To Be. You can follow the festival on Facebook by searching 'Barnard Castle Comedy Festival' or on Twitter @BarneyComFest.

Tickets:

The festival takes place on Saturday 18 July 2015 at The Witham arts centre on Horsemarket.

Shows will run from 12pm until late, with Watson's show - a warm-up appearance ahead of his upcoming national tour - taking place at 6pm.

Earlybird day tickets for the festival are on sale now, priced £45.

For more details on the festival, visit barnardcastlecomedy.com.

Preview: The Gunge Show at Witham Arts Centre

TWO TICKETS TO THE GUNGE SHOW?

The Gunge Show,

Barnard Castle Witham Arts Centre

Saturday 18^th July2015

A leading North East comic is hoping kids will see the funny side of his jokes when he performs at the first ever Barnard Castle Comedy Festival.

Geordie comedian Lee Kyle has announced that he will be performing his family-friendly comedy show, The Gunge Show, at The Witham Arts Centre on Saturday 18 July.

A frantic, boisterous affair akin to the Saturday morning kids’ game shows of the eighties and nineties, The Gunge Show sees Kyle supervising two teams of comics competing in a series of ear-splitting games to save their team captain from a gunging.

Speaking ahead of the show, Lee said: "I love Barnard Castle - the festival has a brilliant line-up and I'm chuffed to be a part of it. My show's for kids and stupid adults. It has gunge in it and it is a right laugh, so please do come along.  I have done the show before and people liked it, so I'm not just guessing. It really is canny good."

Featuring gung-ho contributions from Si Buglass, Nicola Mantalios-Lovett, Sammy Dobson, and Matt Reed, the show will be laden with rapturous stupidity and plenty of near-the-knuckle asides for the grown-ups.

Frenzied rounds see participants – and plucky audience members – insulting each other, showcasing their special talents and shoving a ghastly assortment of foods into each other’s faces.

A recent review by the comedy website Giggle Beats compares the show to the "puerile gaiety of Dick and Dom’s In Da Bungalow – but with lower production values and actual comedians. The show is full of psychotic, inclusive charm that even the hardest heart can’t help but be taken in by."

The Barnard Castle Comedy Festival is organised by Teesdale comedy promoters Funny Way To Be.

Tickets:

It takes place on Saturday 18 July 2015 at The Witham Arts centre on Horsemarket.

Shows will run from 12pm until late, with Lee Kyle's Gunge Show kicking off the festival at noon.

Earlybird day tickets for the festival are on sale now, priced £45.  For more details on the festival, visit barnardcastlecomedy.com.

On The Web:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/barnardcastlecomedyfestival

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BarneyComFest

BARNARD CASTLE COMEDY FESTIVAL SHOWS

•       12pm - 1pm Lee Kyle presents The Gunge Show

•       1.30pm - 2.30pm Lost Voice Guy: Disability For Dunces

•       3pm - 4pm Tony Law: Nonsense In Progress

•       4.30pm - 5.30pm Jo Caulfield: Awkward Conversations

•       6pm - 7pm TBA

•       8.30pm - 10.30pm Alex Horne: Monsieur Butterfly

DATE: Saturday 18 July 2015

VENUE: The Witham, 3 Horsemarket, Barnard Castle, Durham, DL12 8LY

 Click on this link for more details about Be My Enemy / Alterred at The Cluny

Preview: Tony Law at Barnard Castle The Witham

LOTS OF LAUGHS WITH LAW

Tony Law
Barnard Castle The Witham
Saturday 18 July.

Following a fourth successive Edinburgh Festival Fringe sell-out run and extensive tour, Canadian stand-up Tony Law crashes down at the Barnard Castle Comedy Festival with a brand new show.  

Alternative comedy hero Tony Law is on his way to Teesdale for the 2015 Barnard Castle Comedy Festival. Teesdale comedy fans will get to see the Canadian stand-up's brand new show first when he performs at The Witham in Barnard Castle on Saturday 18 July.

His show, dubbed Nonsense In Progress, takes place at 3pm, with live comedy running throughout the day in the venue's main hall.

Festival Director Peter Dixon said: "I saw Tony at last summer's Edinburgh Festival and was blown away.  His charismatic performance electrifies a room and we're sure he'll be a big hit at our first ever comedy festival in Barnard Castle."

 

One of the best and most exciting live comics performing in the UK today, Law's cheerfully absurd humour has endeared him to both live and TV audiences around the world.

His  recent TV and radio credits include Have I Got News For You (BBC1), Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Heading Out, The Culture Show, Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe (BBC2), 8 Out Of 10 Cats (C4), The Alternative Comedy Experience (Comedy Central), Tony Law’s Surreal Guide To Surreal Comedy (Radio 4 Extra), Loose Ends and Infinite Monkey Cage (Radio 4). 

The Canadian stand-up is a three-time Chortle-award winner and was a Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award 2012 nominee. 

Law comes to the North East as part of the first ever Barnard Castle Comedy Festival.

It was announced last week that Radio 4 star Alex Horne would close the festival on Saturday 18 July, with more huge names to be announced in the coming weeks.

Earlybird day tickets for the festival are on sale now, priced £45.

For more details on the festival, visit barnardcastlecomedy.com.

On The Web:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/barnardcastlecomedyfestival

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BarneyComFest

Tickets & Festival Details:

·        12pm - 1pm TBA

·        1.30pm - 2.30pm TBA

·        3pm - 4pm Tony Law: Nonsense In Progress

·        4.30pm - 5.30pm TBA

·        6pm - 7pm TBA

·        8.30pm - 10.30pm Alex Horne: Monsieur Butterfly

DATE: Saturday 18 July 2015

VENUE: The Witham, 3 Horsemarket, Barnard Castle, Durham, DL12 8LY

Preview: Funny Way To Be Comedy Club Spring 2015 Season

Spring Comedy In

Barnard Castle

Teesdale’s Funny Way To Be Comedy Club have announced details of their 2015 comedy programme in Barnard Castle.

Based at the recently-refurbished Witham arts centre, the new comedy programme runs from January until March and features some of the funniest men and women in the UK, including the big success story of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Best Newcomer winner Alex Edelman.

The new season, programmed by Barnard Castle resident Peter Dixon, officially gets underway on Saturday 10 January, with a headline appearance from award-winning comedian Lucy Beaumont.

Beaumont has a clutch of awards to her name. She’s a 2014 Foster’s Best Newcomer nominee, winner of the BBC New Comedy Award in 2012, and a former Chortle Award winner for Best Newcomer. In 2013, Lucy appeared on series two of Live At The Electric on BBCThree, and has recently been commissioned to produce her own show for BBC Radio 4, To Hull and Back. Rising stars Katie Mulgrew and Hayley Ellis complete the bill in a night featuring three of the most exciting female comics in the UK today.

Alex Edelman

Next up in Teesdale is the 2014 Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Newcomer, USA comedian Alex Edelman. The 25-year-old from Boston is the next big thing in comedy. Fresh, original, and endearing, with each performance Edelman continues to prove himself to be one of the world's most promising upcoming comedians. He joins Australian sensation Felicity Ward, one-liner comedian Peter Brush and Chortle Student Comedian of the Year Jamila Maddix in Barnard Castle on Saturday 7 February.

Tony Law

On Saturday 28 February, we welcomes alternative comedy hero Tony Law to the region. The cheerfully absurd humour that Law knocks around into a jazzy, freeform shape has endeared him to both live and TV audiences in the UK and abroad. Law has made appearances on Charlie Brooker's Screen Wipe, Sue Perkins' sitcom Heading Out and Have I Got News For You, and is now a regular on TV panel shows Never Mind The Buzzcocks and 8 Out Of 10 Cats.

Funny Way To Be’s final spring show sees two festival favourites bring their latest shows to the region. Ray Peacock will perform an abridged version of his critically-acclaimed Edinburgh Fringe show, Here Comes Trouble, while Leicester Comedy Festival Best Show winner Ahir Shah is not to be missed. Ray and Ahir are at The Witham on Saturday 28 March.

 

Felicity Ward

Peter Dixon, of Funny Way To Be, said: "With the announcement of the new year season we now have ten stand up comedy shows programmed until the end of March 2015.  We have continued our commitment to bring the very best comedians, with a programme providing shows to suit all sorts of tastes, to rural Barnard Castle.  In this season we have comics from the USA, Australia and Canada providing a real international flavour."

Tony Law

To complement the more high-profile shows in the calendar, the Teesdale comedy club have also announced details of three bargain mid-week shows set to feature the stand-up stars of tomorrow.

With tickets only a fiver, Teesdale comedy fans can see cult comedian Silky (19 November), BBC New Comedy Award winner Steve Bugeja (21 January) and Chris Ramsey tour support Carl Hutchinson (11 March) for less than the cost of a pint in London.

Peter added: “For audiences it's a chance to come along and see a top quality professional show with an intimate friendly setting without spending a fortune. It is ideal for both regular comedy fans as well as people who is thinking about coming along to see a live comedy show for the first time.”

Tickets:

·        

     Wednesday 29 October: Lee Nelson: Suited & Booted work-in-progress, £17.50, 7.30pm

·        Wednesday 19 November: Silky, with support, £5, 8.00pm

·        Saturday 29 November: Susan Calman: Lady Like, £14/£12 concessions, 8pm

·        Saturday 13 December: Romesh Ranganathan and Suzi Ruffell, £12/£10 concessions, 8.00pm

·        Saturday 10 January: Northern Ladies - Lucy Beaumont, Katie Mulgrew & Hayley Ellis, 8.00pm

·        Wednesday 21 January: Steve Bugeja, with support, £5, 8.00pm

·        Saturday 7 February: Alex Edelman, Felicity Ward, Jamali Maddix and Peter Brush, £10 advanced/ £12 on the door, 8.00pm.

·        Saturday 28 February: Tony Law, £12 advanced/ £14 on the door, 8.00pm.

·        Wednesday 11 March: Carl Hutchinson, with support, £5, 8.00pm.

·        Saturday 28 March: Ray Peacock & Ahir Shah, £10 advanced/ £12 on the door, 8.00pm

Tickets for all shows are on sale now from funnywaytobe.com.

Venue: The Witham, 3 Horsemarket, Barnard Castle, Durham, DL12 8LY