Manchester Comedy of the Week ft. Phil Lucas, Shappi Khorsandi & more

Phil Lucas | The Pub/Zoo | Tue 13 Dec | 7pm | £5/3
XS Malarkey wrap another cracking year of live comedy (before next week’s much loved comedians booze up that is their Christmas party) with a fine line up of favourites old and new. Headliner Phil Lucas is arguably best known for his shop window advertisements including ‘Waxwork of Pete Waterman (Bored with it to be honest)’ and a giveaway of photographs of Kate Garraway taken from his very own television that do the rounds on social media every so often but it his live AV extravaganzas that really showcase his strange comedy prowess.
www.wegottickets.com

Peter Fleming | Koh Tao | Tue 13 Dec | 8.15pm | FREE
The University of Manchester Comedy Society will also be signing off for 2016 with a free show headlined by Peter Fleming. The gentle old TV producer is the brain child of the Tom Burgess half of sketch duo Sam & Tom and showcases Burgess’ skill for characterization. Peter Fleming is a throwback to a time before even Burgess was around but is so well observed and lovingly crafted you’d think the twenty something with flour in his hair was a septuagenarian (at least) maker of horribly dated nonsense 50s and 60s children’s television.
www.facebook.com

Chorlton Chuckles | South West Manchester Cricket Club | Fri 16 Dec | 7.30pm | £7/10
Another comedy show that’s had a consistently great year of line ups is Chorlton Chuckles. Quietly going about its excellent business in the South West Manchester area via their cricket club. A nice mix of club comics and stranger fare Chuckles has support from being both a local show but tinged with the more surreal fringes that inevitably come from being situated in the hipster commune of Chorlton. To finish of the year they have Tony Burgess headlining with support from Lenny Sherman, Konstantin Kisin and Paul Cox with regular Mc Alex Perry holding the reigns.
www.facebook.com

Shappi Khorsandi (pic) | The Lowry | Sun 18 Dec | 8pm | £14/16
Khorsandi is celebrating her 40^th year of her arrival in Britain and it is perhaps the best time to assess that feeling of being a patriot from an outsiders point of view with all the horrible nonsense that has come from 2016’s maelstrom of scaremongering and hate. ‘Oh My Country!’ takes an irreverent look at what the UK really is and with a subtitle of ‘From Morris Dancing to Morrissey’ you get the idea of the kind of messy nationalism people still seem to cling to. Khorsandi aims to reclaim patriotism and in a time when the term couldn’t be any less clear it’s one heck of a task. And about time it was laughed at.
www.thelowry.com

Sidekick | On Bar | Mon 19 Dec | 7.30pm | £2/FREE
Kate McCabe’s Sidekick comedy moves from its usual ‘first Monday of the month’ slot to bask in the Christmas glow and with the American host’s love of pageantry you can bet its going to be one heck of a show. After a strange year for her homeland Kate definitely feels like she needs Christmas more so than ever before and thusly has invited Katharine Ferns (2012 finalist Toronto’s funniest comedian), Peter Brush and Daniel Nicholas to bring some kind of festive cheer to the village the week before Christmas.
www.facebook.com