The line-up has been announced for 2018's Leicester Comedy Festival Silver Stand-Up Final.

The first Silver Stand Up competition – for over 55s – was won by Shelley Bridgman who continues to gig regularly across the UK and was a founder member of the Trans Comedy Award, working with BBC writers to develop scripts that portray funny and positive representations of the trans community. The winning script, Boy Meets Girl, aired on BBC Two in 2015, to critical acclaim.

The 2013 winner of the Silver Stand Up competition, Marc Lucero, regularly gigs across London, and the 2014 competition was won by Peter Callaghan, a member of the comedy collective Old Folks Telling Jokes, which performs around the country.

In 2015 the competition was won by Ed de Cantor.  Ed had given up performing stand up aged 40, thinking he was “too old”.  On winning the competition in 2015, he said “I am completely over the moon. Winning this competition is a dream come true.” 

The 2016 winner was Marguerite Grant, a Missouri native now based in Cambridgeshire, who performed in-character as a housewife and inventor.

2017's winner was Pete Teckman from Northampton. On winning the competition he said: “There were acts who entered with different levels of experience all having a go and it’s just really nice that there’s something there for older acts to have a go at. I think it’s a great competition.” 

The final will take place in Leicester on February 22, hosted by Barbara Nice. Tickets here. 

The sixteen performers in this year's final are:

Nik Hill                                               Bruce Sidlo

Sally Firth                                          Sandra Hale

Jac Bevan                                          Debra Heighton

The Geri-Raptric                             Fred Ferenczi

Kevin Hudson                                  Baldy

Sha Wylie                                          John Butler

Christine                                           Lois Bromfield

Bakshi Shemar                                Pat O’Connor