Comedy Picks of the Week ft. Yianni Agisilaou and Chris Martin (not that one)

Chris Martin | The Lowry, The Quays | Sun 14 Sep | 8pm | £12
After supporting the likes of Milton Jones, Jack Whitehall and Russell Kane it’s time for Chris Martin to step out of the shadows of these acts – and indeed that of his conscious uncoupling namesake’s – to perform his own full show. A comic on the cusp for the last four years, he feels the time is right to give his unique views on dogs, Tupperware and hair to an audience that is explicitly there to see him. A talented comedian with critical acclaim at his back, described by The Guardian as ‘one of the UK’s best young observationalists’, and you’d hope they’d know a thing or two about Observers. Sorry.
www.thelowry.com

Dead Cat Comedy | Sandbar | Mon 15 Sep | 8pm | FREE
Dead Cat continues its residency in Sandbar with another free night of comedy aimed at the stranger tastes in stand up. This particular instalment is billed as being a ‘Super Strange Special’ – so who knows what you might find on the stage. We do. We know. First up is rebel poet, born a decade or so too late Imodium Nitrate, spitting invective about Messrs Blair and Bush. They know what they did. El Purnell has been gathering acclaim up and down the country for his highly original act and Stan Skinny, sounding like a vaudeville act from a bygone era, evoking laughs from songs, poems and even yoga. Much more is promised, and with Red Redmond at the helm, much more well be accrued.
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Yianni Agisilaou (pictured) | The Pub/Zoo | Tue 16 Sep | 7.30pm | £5/£3
You may be unfamiliar with this Australian comic but chances are, after your first experience of Yianni Agisilaou, you’ll certainly recall the name – though you might struggle to spell it. A veteran of Melbourne comedy festival and several Edinburgh trips, with great reviews and a host of fans for his tight writing and bizarre skew on live comedy and its intricacies. It’s fine observational comedy, especially if you’re the antipodean son of Cypriot immigrants, that is coloured in with an array of vivid surreal slants. He won’t even care too much if you can’t spell Agisilaou.
www.wegottickets.com

Play Time | Three Minute Theatre | Tue 16 Sep | 8pm | FREE
Join Peter Slater, and hopefully Randolph Tempest if he lets him out to play too, for a night of comedy that puts the ‘mental’ in experimental. Never one to steer too close to a script, Slater will be leading a merry band in stand-up and sketches that have never been seen before. Ripe for a heady mix of the sublime and the ridiculous, this night is as much a testing ground for old acts as it is new terrain for those with less experience. The atmosphere conjured by the always hilarious Slater will help keep the energy and laughs very high, even if it ends up getting sectioned.
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Thanks to @johnwinsagain