Comedy Picks of the Week ft. Chris Ramsey, Dan Nightingale + SOS TV Live

Brennan Reece & Jim Smallman | The King’s Arms, Salford | Mon 3 Aug | 8.15pm | FREE
As August dawns so too does the Edinburgh Fringe, leaving comedians with precious few days to make sure their shows are air-tight before they head up to Scotland and rewrite the majority of it after a couple of days. Squeezing in one last preview are Brennan Reece, with his show Marvel, and Jim Smallman, with My Girls. Smallman’s show was nominated for Best New Show at Leicester Comedy Festival earlier in the year, and Reece has just won English Comedian of the Year. A pair to certainly keep an eye on at the Fringe – but you can see them for nowt at The King’s Arms first.
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Dan Nightingale | The Pub/Zoo | Tue 4 Aug | 7.30pm | £5/£3
Consistently one of the Manchester scene’s funniest performers, Dan Nightingale has been on the cusp of ‘the big time’ for a while now. With a host of television credits under his belt, including John Bishop’s Only Joking, he is perhaps best known in this city for his rapid-fire presentation at the Frog and Bucket’s Monday night gong show, Beat the Frog. Also on the bill is Liam Bolton, a young Liverpudlian comedian you should really check out. He also keeps threatening to quit – so make sure you head down and give him a reason to keep on going.
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Chris Ramsey (pictured) | Chorlton Irish Club | Thu 6 Aug | 8pm | £8
Perenial head-scratcher Chris Ramsey divides opinion wherever he pops up. On the one hand he’s a naturally funny comedian who’s starred in and written his own TV show in BBC’s Hebburn; to others he’s still a symbol of what they perceive to be wrong with modern comedy: laddish and sometime boorish delivered by haircut in skinny jeans. Both of these are reductive of an intelligent comic who knows his audience and his own mind, and is rarely afraid to speak it. This will be a sneak preview of his forthcoming All Growed Up tour in a great venue for live comedy.
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SOS TV Live | Three Minute Theatre | Fri 7 Aug | 8pm | £5
One of the monthly comedy nights not taking a break for the Fringe is Manchester’s strangest variety show, SOS TV Live. Hosted by the superlative-busting Randolph Tempest and with appearances from a rogues gallery of characters from the Manchester comedy scene both in person and in the short movies projected onto the big screen at various intervals. This month they welcome the Bob Blackman’s Tray with their madcap salute to variety shows, which is arguably the most fitting act to play SOS.
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New Stuff | The Comedy Store | Sun 9 Aug | 7.30pm | £4
Toby Hadoke invites his comedy friends that haven’t headed north to try out some new untested material to a friendly audience. An interesting look at the genesis of a joke, New Stuff is a great place for comedy fans to see acts they love for a much cheaper price, and to see them at their most vulnerable and human state. Even when it doesn’t work the acts know just as much as the audience and can riff on that creating a strange but comforting atmosphere.
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Thanks to @johnwinsagain