Comedy Picks of the Week ft FREE stuff, Zoe Lyons + Mark Thomas

Comedy Creche | Sandbar | Mon 7 Oct | 8pm | FREE
Dead Cat Comedy presents a new open mic night for new comics taking their very first steps and established acts trying out new material. No heckles or gongs, just a friendly night of free comedy. Human comedy fireball Red Redmond introduces six acts of varying experience including Freddy Quinne and Ben Schofield.
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Etch a Sketch | Montpellier’s | Tue 8 Oct | 8pm | FREE
Another new night, this time in the Northern Quarter’s hidden gem Montpellier’s, Etch a Sketch had a short but successful run at Cord before the bar closed and now looks to flourish in its new home. A mixture of new and established acts, they also welcome Ilaria Passeri and her Sketchy Theatre Group to provide a few weird and wonderful skits. There’s also a whiskey promotion on upstairs so you should be able to get a few good drams to go with your laughs.
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Zoe Lyons (pictured)| Frog and Bucket | Wed 9 Oct | 8pm | £7 (adv) £10 (otd)
A veteran of Mock the Week, Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow and The Wright Stuff, as well as a winner of Funniest Joke of the Fringe in 2008 and the Funny Women Award in 2004, Lyons is a master of finding the absurd in the mundane. With a stellar line up of great support from the likes of Hayley Ellis and Dotty Winters this is one of the highlights of the Women in Comedy Festival.
www.womenincomedy.co.uk

Mark Thomas | Dancehouse | Wed 9 & Thu 10 Oct| 8pm | £15/12
Just over halfway through his year of committing 100 Acts of Minor Dissent, Mark Thomas brings his hilarious and subversive show to the Dancehouse. Consistently disproving Frankie Boyle’s assertion that comedians over 40 lose their edge, Thomas has lost none of his bite in his 50 years on the earth and provides the best in political comedy.
www.dancehouse.ticketline.co.uk

Lucy Porter | Dancehouse | Fri 11 Oct | 8pm | £12/10
A treatise on the nature of nationality and geographical (as well as metaphysical) belonging, everyone’s favourite foul mouthed imp performs as part of the month long Women in Comedy festival with her show ‘Northern Soul’. Great punch lines and one-liners pepper this search for a spiritual home from one of stand up’s great performers.
www.dancehouse.ticketline.co.uk

Norris & Parker | Lass O’Gowrie | Sat 12 Oct | 8pm | £5
Returning from a successful stint at the Fringe where this duo garnered great praise from the press and patrons that frequented their show ‘All Our Friends Are Dead’, Katy Norris and Sinead Parker bring some of their dark and surreal comic creations to the upstairs theatre at the Lass. Another gem of the Women in Comedy festival, Norris & Parker look to have a very bright future ahead of them plying their dark trade.
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