This is a week when the supporting players take centre stage. Fans of C4's Man Down may recognise Mike Wozniak as Greg Davies' hapless accountant chum. Wozniak played a kind of straight man as the lunacy went on all around him in the sitcom, but he allows a little more lunacy into his stand-up set, which has a nice line in offbeat stories.
Take The Hit, which opens at the Soho Theatre tonight, was nominated for a Foster's Award in Edinburgh last summer and tells the tale of Wozniak's in-laws coming to live with him – cue sitcom-style anecdotes and a postmodern undertow as he attempts to put on a sparkly show only to be constantly sidetracked. It was not the best show I saw in Edinburgh, but that might have been my fault. I was sitting by a window and I kept getting distracted by some noisy roadworks going on outside.
Another familiar face from the box is Miles Jupp, who brings his touring show, Miles Jupp Is The Chap You're Thinking Of to the Ambassadors Theatre for two nights from Wednesday with a return visit later in the month. Sitcom-wise Jupp is probably best known for his appearances in Rev, but since then he has become a panel show regular and he now has his own TV show in the pipeline, an adaptation of his R4 cooking series in which he plays foodie Damien Trench.
Jupp's live persona is an exaggerated version of his real self – slightly posh, slightly dotty, slightly passive-aggressive haughty. I really enjoyed his last solo show, Fibber In The Heat, his breakthrough set in which he told the story of blagging his way onto the England cricket team's foreign tour as a journalist. The way England is currently playing he could probably blag his way into the team as an opening batsman.
There are a couple of very strong benefit gigs this week too. Al Murray fronts Sex Appeal at the Bloomsbury Theatre on Saturday in aid of the Brook sexual health charity with Ava Vidal, Francesca Martinez, Robin Ince and more. That follows Friday's Resofit benefit at the same venue featuring Stewart Lee, Josie Long, Lewis Schaffer and the priceless talents of Daniel Kitson. I can't think of a better way to spend Valentine's Day than enjoying Daniel Kitson's own particular perspective on the nature of romance.
