Reckless Comedy

MONDAY JANUARY 20TH
Doors 7.30pm, Show 8:30pm
Entry £3 (season pass – eight shows for £13)
LAMP, Leamington Spa

TONY COWARDS

Tony has been performing stand up comedy all over the country since 2004 and is originally from sleepy Suffolk but now lives in rural Wiltshire, where he sits around in his pyjamas, drinking tea, eating Jaffa cakes and playing with his cat whilst training as a world class procrastinator for the 2016 Olympics.

My favourite joke of the Festival so far was told to me by a Suffolk stand-up comedian and die-hard Ipswich fan Tony Cowards. – Hardeep Singh Kohli, The Scotsman on Sunday (and BBC1’s ‘The One Show’)

Andrew Bird
“Superb… the exciting rising star” – Time Out
“A natural comedian” – The Stage
“Effortlessly engaging and funny as hell” – Rhod Gilbert

Will Mars
‘Fearless’ (The List), ‘Engaging’ (Chortle)

Ed Aczel
“Britain’s greatest living anti-comic” (The Guardian)

Plus Okse and Wizzy Janew!

MONDAY JANUARY 13TH
Doors 7.30pm, Show 8:30pm
Entry £3 (season pass – nine shows for £13)
LAMP, Leamington Spa

Andrew Bird
“Superb… the exciting rising star” – Time Out
“A natural comedian” – The Stage
“Effortlessly engaging and funny as hell” – Rhod Gilbert

Will Mars
‘Fearless’ (The List), ‘Engaging’ (Chortle)

Paul Savage
“Has a wonderful way with words” BBC
“Genuinely brilliant. writes a good joke, draws a good cartoon: an all round hoot” The Guardian

Plus Rob Halden, Mark Hunter and a headliner still TBC!

MONDAY DECEMBER 2ND
Doors 7.30pm, Show 8:30pm
Entry £3
LAMP, Leamington Spa

JAMES SHERWOOD
“Imaginative musical jokes and beautifully crafted original comedy songs…The material he offers is fresh, contemporary and pin-sharp original. ” Guardian

“If you ever wondered what would happen if Bill Bailey
and Marcus Brigstocke had a child…” Chortle

Andrew Bird
Andrew has a fancy new website. Unfortunately it doesn’t have a handy quote I can copy and paste here.

Jonathan Elston
“A young comic with incredible talent and natural warmth” The Guardian

Will Mars
‘Fearless’ (The List), ‘Engaging’ (Chortle)

Plus: Michael Kehinde, Jay Handley and more!

MONDAY NOVEMBER 25th
Doors 7.30pm, Show 8:30pm
Entry £3
LAMP, Leamington Spa

JULIET MEYERS
“Devilish coy look, excellent material with some on the edge gags.” The Scotsman (4 stars)

“Had me in stitches with her witty observations and social judgements.” bbc.co.uk

“laugh- out loud funny, wonderfully bizarre ideas.” Chortle

Ed Aczel
“Britain’s greatest living anti-comedian” The Guardian

Nick Hall
“Crackingly original” ★★★★ The List

Plus Nigel Lovell, Jim Kelly, Lorcan Mullan and Neil Irving

MONDAY NOVEMBER 18TH
Doors 7.30pm, Show 8:30pm
Entry £3
LAMP, Leamington Spa

ISZI LAWRENCE
‘delicious, meticulous and elegant.’
‘unconventionally sassy.’
Louder Than War *****

‘see her before she hits the big time.’
Three Weeks****

Rob Coleman
“Presence a plenty and material to match” – One 4 Review#

Dom Lister
‘Perfect, light-hearted comedy’ Stagewon

Plus: Jason Manly, Ted Shiress, Charlie Webster, Warwick Players, and Kate Cherrell

MONDAY NOVEMBER 11TH
Doors 7.30pm, Show 8:30pm
Entry £3
LAMP, Leamington Spa

STUART GOLDSMITH
Stuart returns to his hometown of Leamington Spa! Comedy nerds will know him as the host of The Comedians’ Comedian Podcast, others may know him as host of kids’ show Mission:2110.

Stuart sparkles with the effortless charisma and quick-fire timing he honed over a misspent youth as a street-performer.

Nowadays he is internationally recognised for original, striking stand-up comedy; his last three solo shows making him an “expert standup” (Sunday Times), and a “consistent fringe must-see” (Broadway Baby).

Will Mars
Will Mars mixes black comedy, satire and observation into some fine comedy cocktails. He is ‘Fearless’ (The List), ‘Engaging’ (Chortle) and writes jokes that are ‘Thought provoking’ (Broadway Baby) and ‘Take us out of our mundane reality’ (The Guardian).

Roger Swift
Roger is one of my favourite acts on the circuit, doing a genuinely unique act that’s nearly impossible to describe. An absolute must-see.

Andrew Bird
Yes, again.

Plus: Holly Prescott, Dave Left and Dave Pitt!

This Monday is the 100th Reckless Comedy show in it’s current format, and we have a cavalcade of brilliant acts and our favourite regulars lined up.

MONDAY NOVEMBER 4th
Doors 7.30pm, Show 8:30pm
Entry £3
LAMP, Leamington Spa

OWEN NIBLOCK
“ground-breaking” – The Scotsman
“A very funny man” – Russell Howard
“inspired and offbeat” – Chortle

Ed Aczel
“Britain’s greatest living anti-comedian” The Guardian

And then most of this lot once everything is confirmed: Wow Impro, Warwick Players, Heather Charlton, Paul Savage, Jonathan Elston, Adele Cliff!

Plus there will be some amazing (and cheap) posters on sale, balloons, bubble machines, frogs, tap dancing, bad pre-show music, walking and a pun.*

*some of the above may be lies.

MONDAY OCTOBER 28TH
Doors 7.30pm, Show 8:30pm
Entry £3
LAMP, Leamington Spa

JAMES COOK
James Cook is a professional comedian based in Birmingham, UK, with over 1,000 gigs worth of experience as an act and compere.

His act has been described as “truly original” (Danny Wallace (off of the telly)), whereas he’s been called “suave and chirpy” by that publishing powerhouse, the Bromsgrove Advertiser, and a “sarcastic raconteur” by the Leeds Metro.

For some reason, this means that he has been likened to “the future Frank Skinner” (Birmingham Metro) and “Dylan Moran’s younger brother” (The Stage). How this is possible remains a mystery.

A slightly less lazy journalist said that he “shows scant regard for the hackneyed conventions of stand-up” (The Scotsman) which, he’s been assured, is a Good Thing. His two favourite quotes are that he “destroyed my concrete belief that all comperes are twats” (eyeonmoseley.com) and that “his quick tongue and dry sense of humour kept me laughing” (BBC Tees).

Andrew Bird
“Superb… the exciting rising star” – Time Out
“A natural comedian” – The Stage
“Effortlessly engaging and funny as hell” – Rhod Gilbert

Andrew McBurney
“Andrew McBurney did not deserve to go home empty-handed, because his magnificently wretched stage persona gave his material an emotionally bedraggled edge. The concept of comedy as therapy is nothing new, but he appears on the verge of tears, desperately trying to hold it together, as he revealed he has just been dumped. That raw heartache defined what should have been material, giving every funny line a pathos-laden twist. We’ll see more of him.” Steve Bennet, Chortle.

Plus David McIver, Jack Kirwan, Robert Kemp and more!

MONDAY OCTOBER 21ST
Doors 7.30pm, Show 8:30pm
Entry £3
LAMP, Leamington Spa

The Leamington Comedy Festival is over, but we are still here! Join us for more awesome comedy fun.

NICK PAGE
Nick was previously a daytime TV presenter, before being sacked from the BBC for an incident involving an antique rocking horse and a four-poster bed. He also had a Radio 4 show about farming which somehow led to him sailing a bathtub downriver to Brighton.

“A huge dose of likeability with some very clever material”
Bath Chronicle.

Andrew Bird
“Superb… the exciting rising star” – Time Out
“A natural comedian” – The Stage
“Effortlessly engaging and funny as hell” – Rhod Gilbert

Jon Wagstaffe
“Listening to Jon Wagstaffe was like listening to your slightly over-clocked mate in the pub regaling you with stories of his weekend, complete with raucous detours, unfinished sentences (not that it meant you couldn’t follow) and inappropriately mixed metaphors.” – One4review

Ed Aczel
“Britain’s greatest living anti-comedian” The Guardian

Plus Samuel Pauly, Michael Kehinde, Sam Cobb and more!

MONDAY OCTOBER 14TH
Doors 7.30pm, Show 8:30pm
Entry £3
LAMP, Leamington Spa

SARAH BENNETTO
Sarah Bennetto is a stand-up comic from Melbourne, Australia, and founder of a new comedy phenomenon called Storytellers’ Club. This monthly club is a haven for literate, friendly, lo-fi comedy – which has since transferred to great acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe.

“But the undeniable star of the show is the scintillating storyteller who is our hostess, narrator and raconteur, Sarah Bennetto. Her stories and anecdotes are particularly funny (ask her about the time her father tried to pimp her for some more land).” – Broadway Baby
“Her amusing anecdotes highlighted the importance of locking toilet doors, and why quiche and misogyny are inextricably linked.” – Three Weeks
“Feisty” -Time Out, London

Andrew Bird
“Superb… the exciting rising star” – Time Out
“A natural comedian” – The Stage
“Effortlessly engaging and funny as hell” – Rhod Gilbert

Nicky Wilkinson
A bright and quick-witted Hullonian, her warm, likeable, down-to-earth style instantly puts audiences at ease; as ready and eager to laugh as they would be sharing a great joke with a friend.
Her comedy mixes charming, real-life anecdotes with just the right dose of self-deprecation and often brilliantly funny improvised riffs with the crowd.

Marshal B Anderson
Marshal B Anderson spends some of his time being angry on stage. Some people think he’s quite good; he reached the national finals of the national Silver Stand-up competition 2013.
Things he gets angry about include getting old, stupid governments, greedy people, anyone who knows they’re right, the cold-dead hand of management (you know who you are) and the army of thoughtless dicks who make the rest of us miserable just because they can.

Plus Jim Carroll, Kate Cherrell & more..

And at least two more acts to be announced!