Steve Wright looks forward to having a good old chuckle in 2011.

Headline news in laughter-land is that both our local comedy festivals are inked in to return next year. Bath Comedy Festival (1-10 Apr, various venues) will welcome the likes of Jo Caulfield, Sid Kipper, Arthur Smith, Boothby Graffoe, impressionist Phil Cool (remember him?), sketch troupe Abandoman and the irrepressible Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre. And the Bristol BrouHaHa returns to the Tobacco Factory and Comedy Box from 15-23 July: acts tbc. 

The Comedy Box, in fact, begins the year with something a little different. Tried out already in Brighton, London and across town at The Lanes last year, Popcorn Comedy (monthly) mixes live stand-up with big-screen showings of some of the funniest comedy videos currently online. Guests already booked in include ace sketch troupe Pappy’s (19 Jan) and comic/Steve Coogan collaborator David Schneider (16 Mar). Comic Paul Kerensa brings a show entitled ‘Borderline Racist’ to Bath’s Rondo Theatre on 21 Jan, before the stadium-filling former son of this parish Russell Howard raises laughs at Komedia (23 Jan) and the Tobacco Factory, Bristol (26-28 Jan).

Around the same time there’s a return for Bristol’s annual Slapstick Festival (27-30 Jan) featuring sets from Rob Brydon, Neil Innes, Shappi Khorsandi and others. Stephen K Amos brings his easy confessional charm to the Colston Hall (30 Jan) on the same night that another unabashedly feelgood comic, Paul Sinha, entertains audiences at Bath’s Comedy Cavern in the company of Bristol’s engaging storyteller (will this be his year?) John Robins. Robins also shares a bill at Jesters on 18-19 Feb with musical comic Mitch Benn: other Jesters acts to watch out for include Miles Jupp (28-29 Jan & 15-16 Apr), Christian Reilly (11-12 Feb) and Nathan Caton (25-26 Mar).

2010 was definitely Russell Kane’s year, with the fizzingly intelligent Essex comic bestriding stage and screen and winning over armies of new fans. He’s back round these parts early in ’11, with sets at Komedia (3 Feb) and the Tobacco Factory (20 Feb). Sheffield’s eccentric and wryly poignant comic creation John Shuttleworth is light years from Kane’s smart metropolitan patter, but he too will be charming Komedia audiences (8 Feb). Micky Flanagan, meanwhile, bases much of his comic schtick on his transition from Bethnal Green barra-boy to bourgeois deli-frequenter: he’s also made a parallel leap up the comedy circuit, as his gig at the Colston Hall on 11 Feb testifies. Another comic trading in wry observations of middle-class life is the wonderful Jon Richardson, who gets two run-outs at the Tob Fac on 13 Feb and 13 Mar.

If you’ve been watching Dan Clark’s car-crash mock-confessional TV comedy ‘How Not To Live Your Life’, you’ll want to catch the man himself at the Rondo (2 Mar), Comedy Box (28-30 Mar) or Komedia (3 Apr). Elsewhere, the defiantly individual Simon Munnery (Comedy Box, 3 Mar/Rondo, 4 Mar) is so eccentric and unpredictable that we can’t always promise you a rip-roaring time in his company: what we can promise is that you’ll be watching one of the circuit’s true originals at work and that, if on song, he’ll be worth every penny.  

Another comic with a good 2010 under their belt is Andrew Lawrence, who’ll be treating audiences at The Ustinov (6 Mar) and the Comedy Box (17 Mar) to some of his pin-sharp misanthropy. Everyone’s favourite floppy-haired Dubliner Ed Byrne shambles elegantly into the Colston Hall on 8 Mar, just days before R4 ‘Now Show’ faves Punt & Dennis bring their current-affairs comedy to Theatre Royal Bath (13 Mar).

Robin Ince’s Bad Book Club was one of the very best shows we saw all last year: if you missed it, fear not, however, as Ince will be opening those books again at the Comedy Box on 15-16 Apr. Ince’s mate and fellow master cerebralist Richard Herring gave a first run-out to his show ‘Christ on a Bike’ (in which he compared his own achievements at 33 to those of the Son of God) 10 years ago, and he resurrects the show (sorry) next year, at Komedia (16 Mar) and the Tobacco Factory (3-4 May). Muslim comics are not a numerous breed, but this spring brings visits from two fine exemplars of the genre: Shazia Mirza (Comedy Box, 21 Apr) and the effervescent, Kenyan-born, stereotype-eschewing Imran Yusuf (Comedy Box, 20 May).

Milton Jones brings his superb surrealism, shaggy dog stories and gnomic humour to the Tobacco Factory (27 Mar) and Colston Hall (4 May), while Scott Capurro brings some inimitable camp Canadian cattiness to the Comedy Cavern on 3 Apr, the same night that Lenny Henry visits Bristol Hippodrome with his slice of stand-up autobiog, ‘Cradle to Rave: A Musical Journey’. A little further down the line, Weston’s funniest son John Cleese entertains Hippodrome audiences on 21 June.

Copyright Steve Wright 2011 

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