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COMIC CAPERS IN CARDIFF
Continuing to grow from strength to strength, this year’ s Cardiff Comedy Festival sees a whole heap of new venues, some hilarious stand-up comedy, and a dash of comedy theatre and film to add to the bargain. Rhianon Holley picks through the best of the programme.
A
host of local and international talent will take to the stage during July as part of the annual Cardiff Comedy Festival. Now in its fifth year, the festival, which continues to attract one of the best stand-up bills in the country and put Cardiff on the worldwide comedy map, sees Alan Davies headline its gala evening alongside a host of other talent from Wales and beyond. Spanning eight venues and more than 30 shows between Mon 1 and Sun 28 July brings together stand-up, comedy plays, youth comedy workshops, storytelling, competitions and much more. There are also plenty of performances in various venues across the city, providing the perfect opportunity to see some of the UK’ s best comic talent before they head to the Edinburgh Festival. A double bill preview show at Porters brings together two of the funniest acts on the circuit; Lucy Porter and Will Hodgson. Also performing an Edinburgh preview at the venue are two international personalities in Pat Monahan and Australia’ s Benny Boot.
Chapter Arts Centre plays host to a number of performers including the dry wit of Romesh Ranganathan, Vikki Stone, Paul F Taylor, Jarred Christmas( Mock The Week, 8 Out Of 10 Cats), Stephen Carlin, and two of T4’ s rising stars of 2012: Eric Lampaert and Nick Helm. They will also be joined by The Scottish Falsetto Sock Theatre Company. Described by Time Out as“ the Abbott & Costello of the sock world,” the show brings a show of songs, sketches, socks and violence with a sci-fi theme. Lloyd Langford will also present a work-in-progress show at Gwdihw� ahead of the Edinburgh Festival. As part of the festival, Cardiff Central Library will run free comedy workshops for young people aged 14-19, culminating in a gig to see how the new talent has progressed. For an alternative to stand-up, the Plan Café will host Natural Born Storytellers – intimate storytelling nights where famous monologues of varying themes and genres are performed. New additions to the festival include comedy film nights at the new live entertainment bar Porters, who will also host a new comedy short play from up-and-coming Welsh playwright George e Infini. One of the festival’ s main highlights includes The Welsh Unsigned Stand-up Award( WUSA), which aims to give aspiring comedians the opportunity to break onto the comedy scene. The final will take place at the Glee Club on Mon 15 July which will see six contestants who have filtered through the process over the past year, compete for a variety of prizes including £ 1000, a chance to perform at the Glee Club, an interview on Rhod Gilbert’ s radio show and a spot performing at the festival gala finale. Alan Davies, the Jonathan Creek star and QI regular heads up one of the best stand-up bills in the country for the finale of the festival at Wales Millennium Centre on Sun 28 July. The line-up features an assortment of world-class acts including Dublin-born comedian and former San Francisco burlesque dancer Mary Bourke, along with one of the most prolific comedy influences of the modern era, Nick Revell. They’ ll be joined by unique comedy double act Brian Damage & Krysstal with their special blend of music, deadpan comedy and silliness, and the UK’ s foremost guitar-wielding comedian Rob Deering, along with the winner of WUSA. One of the most sought after comperes, Welshman Bennett Arron will be holding proceedings together. Since the festival began in 2009 it has played host to some of the biggest names in comedy such as Rhod Gilbert, Ardal O’ Hanlon, Craig Campbell, Richard Herring, Omid Djalili and Russell Kane. Explaining the motivation behind the independent festival, event organiser Scott Fitzgerald says“ the aim is to create a world class event that can benefit the whole city of Cardiff.” And with so many comedy performances taking place over the course of the festival there’ s bound to be an act to suit your comedy taste, and you may even get a glimpse of the next top comedian.
Cardiff Comedy Festival,
Mon 1-Sun 28 July, various venues in Cardiff. Tickets: events priced separately. Info: www
. cardiffcomedy. co. uk
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