Manchester Comedy Festival

Last updated

The Manchester Comedy Festival was founded by comedian Don Ward and held every October from 2001 to 2011. It began after members of Manchester City Council decided, given the size of the city, it should have a standalone comedy festival. At its peak, it drew thousands to 30 venues for about 200 performances. [1] However, suffering from diminishing council funding, comedians were forced to run their own fundraisers to ensure the 2011 festival could go ahead. [2] This proved unsustainable and the festival was scrapped in August 2012, to comedians' disappointment. [1]

Related Research Articles

Peter Kay Stand up comedian and actor

Peter John Kay is an English actor, comedian and singer. He has written, produced, and acted in several television and film projects, and authored three books.

Urbis

Urbis was an exhibition and museum in Manchester, England, designed by Ian Simpson. The building opened in June 2002 as part of the redevelopment of Exchange Square known as the Millennium Quarter. Urbis was commissioned as a 'Museum of the City' but visitor numbers were lower than expected and a switch was made in 2005-6 to presenting changing exhibitions on popular-culture alongside talks, gigs and special events. Urbis was closed in 2010, after the opportunity arose for Manchester to host the National Football Museum. In 2012, the building re-opened after a complete re-fit as the permanent National Football Museum.

Melbourne International Comedy Festival Annual comedy festival in Melbourne, Australia

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) is the largest stand-alone comedy festival and the second-largest international comedy festival in the world. Established in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks, typically starting in March and running through to April. The Melbourne Town Hall has served as the festival hub since the early 1990s, but performances are held in many venues throughout the city.

Palace Theatre, Manchester

The Palace Theatre, Manchester, is one of the main theatres in Manchester, England. It is situated on Oxford Street, on the north-east corner of the intersection with Whitworth Street. The Palace and its sister theatre the Opera House on Quay Street are operated by the same parent company, Ambassador Theatre Group. The original capacity of 3,675 has been reduced to its current 1,955.

Louis C.K. American comedian and actor

Louis Székely, known professionally as Louis C.K., is an American stand-up comedian, writer, actor, and filmmaker. C.K. won three Peabody Awards and has received six Primetime Emmy Awards, as well as numerous awards for The Chris Rock Show, Louie, and his stand-up specials Live at the Beacon Theater (2011) and Oh My God (2013). He has won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album twice. In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked C.K.'s stand-up special Shameless number three on their "Divine Comedy: 25 Best Stand-Up Specials and Movies of All Time" list and ranked him fourth on its 2017 list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time.

Adam Hills Australian comedian and radio and television presenter

Adam Hills is an Australian comedian and radio and television presenter. In Australia, he hosted the music quiz show Spicks and Specks from 2005–11 and again from 2021, and the talk show Adam Hills Tonight from 2011-13. In the United Kingdom, he has hosted the talk show The Last Leg since 2012. He has been nominated for an Edinburgh Comedy Award, the Gold Logie Award and numerous BAFTA TV Awards.

Mike Birbiglia American comedian, actor, director, producer, and writer

Mike Birbiglia is an American stand-up comedian, actor, director, producer and writer. He is a frequent contributor to This American Life and The Moth, and has released several comedy albums and television specials. His feature-length directorial debut Sleepwalk with Me (2012), based on his one-man show of the same name and in which he also starred, won awards at the Sundance and Nantucket film festivals. He also wrote, directed, and starred in the comedy-drama Don't Think Twice (2016). His 2010 book Sleepwalk with Me and Other Painfully True Stories was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the 2011 Thurber Prize for American Humor. Birbiglia has appeared in films such as Your Sister's Sister (2011), Cedar Rapids (2011), and Trainwreck (2015), played a recurring role in Orange Is the New Black, and has guest starred in episodes of Girls, Inside Amy Schumer, and Broad City.

Flight of the Conchords New Zealand musical comedy duo

Flight of the Conchords is a New Zealand comedy duo composed of musicians Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. Beginning as a popular New Zealand live comedy act in the early 2000s, the duo's comedy and music became the basis of the self-titled BBC radio series (2004) and then the HBO American television series (2007–2009).

Alan Carr English comedian and television personality

Alan Graham Carr is an English comedian, broadcaster and writer. His breakthrough was in 2001, winning the City Life Best Newcomer of the Year and the BBC New Comedy Awards. In the ensuing years, Carr's career burgeoned on the Manchester comedy circuit before he became known for co-hosting The Friday Night Project (2006–2009) with Justin Lee Collins. This led to the release of a short-lived entertainment show Alan Carr's Celebrity Ding Dong (2008), and he went on to star in the comedy chat show Alan Carr: Chatty Man (2009–2016) which aired on Channel 4. Since 2017, Carr often stands in as a team captain on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. In 2019, he became a judge on RuPaul's Drag Race UK.

Manchester International Festival art festival in England

The Manchester International Festival is a biennial international arts festival, with a specific focus on original new work, held in the English city of Manchester. The festival is a biennial event, first taking place in June–July 2007, and subsequently recurring in the summers of 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019. MIF19 took place from 4 to 21 July 2019. The organisation is based in Blackfriars House, adjacent to Blackfriars Bridge but is due to move to a new £110 million new home, The Factory, by the beginning of 2020.

Jason Manford English comedian

Jason John Manford is an English comedian, singer, television presenter, radio presenter and actor.

Jim Jefferies Australian stand-up comedian, actor and writer

Geoff James Nugent, known professionally as Jim Jefferies, is an Australian-American stand-up comedian, actor, and writer. He created and starred in the American FX sitcom Legit (2013–2014) and the Comedy Central late-night show The Jim Jefferies Show (2017–2019).

Manchester Pride Annual LGBT event in Manchester, England

Manchester Pride is one of the UK's leading LGBTQ+ charities. It campaigns for LGBTQ+ equality, celebrates LGBTQ+ life and creates opportunities that engage LGBTQ+ people in Greater Manchester so that they can thrive. It is dedicated to promoting and raising awareness for LGBTQ+ issues in the fight for equality.

Jack Whitehall English actor, comedian, presenter and writer

Jack Peter Benedict Whitehall is an English actor, comedian, presenter, and writer. He is best known for starring as JP in the series Fresh Meat (2011–2016) and Alfie Wickers in the series Bad Education (2012–2014) and its spin-off film The Bad Education Movie (2015). He also co-wrote the latter two. From 2012 to 2018, Whitehall was a regular panellist on the game show A League of Their Own. In 2017, he appeared with his father in the Netflix comedy documentary series Jack Whitehall: Travels with My Father and starred in the television series Decline and Fall. Since 2018, he has been the host of the Brit Awards.

John Bishop English comedian and actor (born 1966)

John Joseph Bishop is a British comedian, presenter, actor, and former footballer.

Iain Stirling Scottish comedian

Iain Andrew Stirling is a British comedian, writer, television presenter, actor, narrator and Twitch streamer from Edinburgh, Scotland.

Combined authority Type of local government institution in England

A combined authority is a type of local government institution introduced in England outside Greater London by the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009. Combined authorities are created voluntarily and allow a group of local authorities to pool appropriate responsibility and receive certain delegated functions from central government in order to deliver transport and economic policy more effectively over a wider area.

Humza Arshad English actor and comedian (born 1985)

Humza Mohammed Arshad is a British-Pakistani actor, comedian and writer of Pakistani descent. He is best known for his web series Diary of a Bad Man (2010–2013) and Badman (2015–present). His homemade YouTube videos have been viewed more than 100 million times, which makes him one of the most popular online comedians in the UK.

Laughing Horse is a British comedy promotion company and venue operator.

Neel Kolhatkar is an Australian comedian, YouTuber and actor. As of April 2021, Kolhatkar has received 78 million views on his YouTube channel.

References

  1. 1 2 Nugent, Helen (11 August 2012). "Manchester comedy festival scrapped owing to lack of funding". The Guardian . Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  2. Bourne, Dianne (17 June 2011). "Stars bail out Manchester Comedy Festival". Manchester Evening News . Reach plc . Retrieved 27 March 2020.