Catch the Fringe on your doorstep at The Bottle Shop
The region’s comedy fans will be given an opportunity to enjoy the best acts this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival has to offer right on their doorstep.
Newcastle venue The Bottle Shop Bar and Kitchen will be bringing several top comics to the city centre throughout the year – allowing audiences to enjoy outstanding comedy at a fraction of the price and the travel distance of the festival.
On Wednesday 6 July Matt Forde and Rob Auton will be previewing their new Edinburgh shows at the Waterloo Square venue.
One of the country’s most in-demand satirists, Matt Forde has appeared on Have I Got News For You, Rory Bremner’s Coalition Report, Mock the Week, 8 out of 10 Cats, Question Time, This Week and Russell Howard’s Good News. He also starred alongside close friend Jon Richardson in Channel 4’s Jon Richardson Grows Up.
Last year saw Matt take his sell-out, critically-acclaimed 2014 Edinburgh Festival Fringe show 24-Hour Political Party People for a week-long run at the Soho Theatre, as well as a nationwide tour.
He then returned to the Edinburgh Festival with his new show, Get the Political Party Started, which enjoyed a sell-out run in the prestigious Cabaret Bar, before also going on to run for a week at Soho Theatre.
Matt hosts a weekly radio show with Jon Richardson on talkSPORT and frequently appears on BBC Four’s The Now Show and The News Quiz. Matt regularly reviews the newspapers for Sky News and has contributed to features on ITV’s evening news.
York born writer, comedian and poet Rob Auton has been performing at poetry nights, comedy clubs and theatres across the country since 2008. He has written three five star rated Edinburgh fringe shows; 2012’s The Yellow Show, 2013’s The Sky Show, and 2014’s The Face Show.
Called “a genuine original” by The Guardian, in 2013 Auton won the Dave Funniest Joke of The Fringe award, and a year later he served as Glastonbury Festival’s official Poet in Residence.
On Thursday 14 July the venue will host an evening with cartoonist Barney Farmer.
Best known as the brains behind highly-acclaimed Viz comic strip Drunken Bakers, as well as The Male Online and many others, Farmer will present an evening of conversation, stand-up and more.
The evening will also feature a screening of 2008 Turner Prize winner Mark Leckey’s notorious and rarely-screened film adaptation of Drunken Bakers. The show starts at 8pm. Tickets are £5, with 20% of the proceeds going to local homelessness charity The People’s Kitchen.
On Wednesday 3 August local comic Matt Reed will make an appearance, alongside a special guest headline act to be announced shortly.
As cheeky as he is wicked, Sunderland lad Reed is a welcome addition to any comedy night entertaining the crowd while skillfully destroying any heckler that crosses his path.
Reed has amassed a huge following in the North East, and is a regular compere/performer at the region’s most popular club nights. He has recently performed at Austria’s mountain-top comedy festival Altitude, and last year took his debut full-length show to the Edinburgh Festival.
The lineup for the September edition of The Bottle Shop’s monthly comedy night – set to take place on Wednesday 7 September – will be announced shortly.
On Wednesday 5 October Edinburgh Comedy Award nominees and consistently one of the festival’s hottest tickets Gein’s Family Giftshop will perform at the venue alongside Kiri Pritchard-McLean.
Fast-paced and irreverent, Gein’s Family Giftshop’s dark, often juvenile sketches have won them not only a heap of awards and nominations but also the hearts of comedy fans throughout the county.
The foursome’s wickedly twisted gags, outstanding chemistry and intense, stripped-back live performances have seen them rise above their sketch group peers.
Gein’s Family Giftshop were nominees for the Best Newcomer Award at The Fosters Edinburgh Comedy Awards in 2014, and were also winners of The Chortle Award for Best Newcomer 2015, London Sketchfest’s Best New Sketch Act and The Audience Choice Award 2014.
The group was invited to appear in the second series of BBC Drama Inside No. 9, after Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton saw their debut show in Edinburgh.
Their writing talent also led to them being commissioned to write a hugely popular three-part series for BBC Radio Wales, a second series of which will air this year.
Welsh Comedian Kiri Pritchard-Mclean has been making something of a name for herself in the short time she’s being performing standup comedy, and has achieved further success as writer and director of Gein’s Family Giftshop.
A unique and assured comic voice, McLean is whip smart with material to match, a presence beyond her years and the rare ability to be challenging in her material without alienating her audience.
Kiri was nominated for a Chortle Award for Best Compere 2016, was a finalist for Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year in 2015 and the Amused Moose Laugh Off in 2014.
All shows start at 7.30pm. Tickets for the monthly shows are priced £5, or £15 with a ribs, chicken wings, fries and coleslaw platter. Tickets for all shows are available now via thelittleboxoffice.com/tbs.
