EXCLUSIVE: Darlington Comedy Festival 2013 – the line-up revealed
Giggle Beats can today announce the line-up for the 2013 Darlington Comedy Festival – with TV stars, established headliners, a live podcast recording and a world-first all in the programme.
The second annual festival, organised by promoter Neil Jollie, will run at seven venues in Darlington throughout July.
All in all, there are 18 shows, three of which are free.
Jason Cook, writer of the BBC2 sitcom Hebburn, is to open the festival on Monday 1 July with a comedy gala in aid of local charities the Butterwick Hospice, Darlington Association on Disability, St Teresa’s Hospice and Daisy Chain.
The gala at the Civic Theatre sees performances from Show Me The Funny winner Patrick Monahan, Gavin Webster, Silky and more.
Expect chat, laughs, games and occasional wine talk as another Hebburn actor, Steffen Peddie, comes to Vesuvio Wines on Wednesday 10 July – to record a live version of his and Andy Fury’s podcast, That Wine Show.
You even get your own free glass of wine so you can join in.
On Sunday 14 July (Inside Out), North East favourite Sarah Millican returns to the Darlington Comedy Festival with an hour-long work-in-progress as she gears up for her 2014 Home Bird tour.
The former ‘Queen of Comedy’, who returns to BBC2 with series three of her chat show later this year, headlined the festival’s inaugural charity gala in 2012.
For those who like their musical comedy, there’s the Wham Bam Comedy Jam (Monday 22 July, Seen), with Duncan Oakley, Gavin Webster, former Giggle Beats New Act of the Month Natalie Wicks and other musical acts.
The festival will also feature a world-first: a Comedy Chat Roulette Show (Tuesday 23 July, The Forum), “where the comedians aren’t just not in the same building, they’re not even in the same town.”
Hosted by Tony Jameson, mystery comedians will be broadcast on a big screen – from a coffee shop, a train station or even their own home – and they can interact with the audience via a web camera aimed at the crowd.
With a couple of exceptions, this year’s festival features every North East comedian heading to the Edinburgh Fringe in August, including Pete Firman, Lost Voice Guy, Seymour Mace and Carl Hutchinson.
Festival programmer Neil Jollie said: “I’m really excited by the line-up for this year’s Darlington Comedy Festival.
“Last year we had a lot of acts from around the country performing Edinburgh previews, but this year we’ve tried to broaden the programming whilst putting more focus on local acts.
“We’re really pleased to be able to showcase local acts like Tony Jameson and Lee Ridley who will be taking their debut hours to Edinburgh, whilst also host shows by North East Edinburgh veterans like Gavin Webster and Seymour Mace.
“There’s loads of shows that we had to bring back for the 2013 festival – Comedy Club 4 Kids was a massive hit in 2012, the opening gala last year raised almost £15,000 for some great local charities, and it wouldn’t be July without an Edinburgh preview by Pete Firman!
“I’m probably most excited by the Comedy Chat Roulette show though – we’ve trialled the technology a couple of times, but it’s going to be nerve-wracking on the night to see if everything works how we hope.
“The fact it’s a world first obviously adds to the excitement, too!”
Tickets for the Darlington Comedy Festival go on sale tomorrow on the festival website.
Here’s the full programme:
