The performers have been announced for 2019's prestigious comedy competitions and events at Leicester Comedy Festival.  The comedians will perform in competitions including Silver Stand Up, Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year Competition, UK Pun Championships and the Circuit Breakers showcase.  All the shows will be part of Leicester Comedy Festival which takes place from 6-24 February 2019.  Full details about the festival can be obtained by visiting www.comedy-festival.co.uk

A record breaking 103 comedians from across the UK applied to take part in the shows. Comedians from Dorset, Peterborough, Manchester and Brighton submitted applications, with over 70% coming from outside London.  This year the competitions have also attracted interest from comedians based in Belgium and Germany.

The Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year Competition has taken place each February since 1995 and past winners have included Johnny Vegas, Josh Widdicombe, Romesh Ranganathan, Jo Enright and Kate Lucas.  Entry is via nomination from a selected group of UK promoters and the winner will be chosen by an industry judging panel. The comedians confirmed to perform in 2019 are:

Kathryn Mather                    Daniel Sofoluke

Jen Ives                                 Riordan DJ

Jeremy Flynn                        Simon Wozniak

Jamie Hutchinson               Krystal Evans

The Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year Competition will take place on Saturday 23rdFebruary at The Y, Leicester.

The UK Pun Championships was set up by Leicester Comedy Festival in 2014 and is billed as a “celebration of the British pun”.  The show is the culmination of #UKPunDay, a twitter phenomenon which in 2018 attracted over 103.5 million impressions on Twitter.  The show takes place in the round in a boxing ring and in 2019 the competition will be hosted by Jason Byrne.  The competitors are confirmed as:

Rob Thomas                         Colin Leggo

Stevie Vegas                        Eleanor Colville

Adele Cliff                             Richard Woolford

Joseph Murphy                    Alf

The UK Pun Championships is at De Montfort Hall, Leicester, on Punday 11th February.

Circuit Breakers was launched in the summer of 2017 with a crowd funding campaign asking people to pledge money to support new and emerging comedians.  The showcase performances give a platform for people who otherwise wouldn’t perform at the festival, and the Festival producers offer them professional support and advice.  All the comedians will attend a “meet the industry” lunch held during the festival where they will receive advice and support from producers and promoters.  They will also benefit from a professional photoshoot with acclaimed photographer Andy Hollingworth.  The comedians selected to take part are:

Joe Hobbs                             Hannah Platt

Chris Copestake                  Carla Pol

George Edgeller                   Nena Edwards

The Circuit Breaker showcase performances are on Friday 15th and Saturday 16th February at PETER Pizzeria, Leicester.

The Silver Stand Up Competition has been running at the Leicester Comedy Festival for seven years and is exclusively for comedians aged over 55. The competition is supported by established acts such as Alexei Sayle, Jasper Carrott and Arthur Smith. The 2019 competitors are confirmed as:

Stylophobia                                       Sally Firth

Pam Tiling                                         Nik Hill

Nipper Thomas                                 Janis Haves

Pat O’Connor                                   Lois Bromfield

Christine Crawley                            Professor John

John Butler                                       Jac Bevan

Oldis                                                   Kevin Hudson

Brian Cowles

The Silver Stand Up Competition, hosted by Mrs Barbara Nice, takes place on Thursday 21st February at PETER Pizzeria, Leicester.

Director of Leicester Comedy Festival, Geoff Rowe, said “Leicester Comedy Festival has always been a place where new & emerging acts perform to develop their material and shows in front of hugely comedy savvy audiences.  Comedians also find the festival is a great place to get good publicity, get reviews for their shows, increase their social media following, have the potential to get “spotted” by the industry and also maybe win an award or 2… 

Over the past 25 years we have supported hundreds of new comedians, as well as exclusive and one-off shows from some of the biggest names in comedy.  We’re hugely proud of our commitment to new talent and our competitions, and Circuit Breakers showcase, will hopefully continue to provide a helping hand to comedians.  We’ve been inundated with applications from acts for all our competitions and showcases, and we are delighted that so many are from across the UK and not just London based acts.  It’s also great that even in these Brexit times we live in, we are attracting interest from acts based outside the UK.  The acts taking part are amongst the cream of the crop of British live comedy and help demonstrate the strength of the comedy circuit.”

More Leicester Comedy Festival info here: www.comedy-festival.co.uk