Manchester comedy of the week FT Amy Gledhill, Josh Weller and Frankie Monroe

While the Edinburgh Fringe has been raging up in Scotland, XS Malarkey have been keeping the comedy home fires burning with a series of incredible lineups and finish off the month strongly with a headline set from Josh Weller. He’ll be backed up by the best of the current crop of young Manchester comics in Justina Seselskaite, Cal Dibbert and Murph, all seamlessly held together by MC Toby Hadoke.

Manchester’s best free night of stand-up celebrates five years in the game this Thursday, and Laughienda have gathered some of their favourites from the last half-decade to do so in style. After selling out his entire Fringe run before the festival even started and adding a record number of extra shows, Joe Kent-Walters’ incredible comic creation Frankie Monroe will be gracing the stage, as well as Josh Jones, Faizan Shah, Hannah Platt and Anna Thomas. Happy birthday indeed.

A Lovely Time has collected some of its favourite comedians for a very special one-off in aid of Gaza charity All Our Relations. Amy Gledhill will host a special evening that features a staggering array of talent, including Phil Ellis, Lucy Beaumont, Chris Cantrill and Sunil Patel. What a week of great lineups in Manchester, who needs the Edinburgh Fringe?