Comedy Picks of the Week with Marcel Lucont, Stewart Lee + more

Beat The Frog World Series | Frog & Bucket | Mon 30 Sep | 7.30pm | £3/Free for students
Manchester’s best new act night gets serious. Previous winners are invited back to compete in the first heat of the world series, an ironic nod to Baseball’s world series in which only American teams have a stake in, these regional comedians may go on to world stardom but it’s not quite yet. Go and watch the next big things in action, with incomparable compering from Alex Boardman.

Quippopotamus | Odd Bar | Tue 1 Oct | 8pm | FREE
Withington’s favourite comedy night is taking some deep breaths and launching an assault on the Northern Quarter. Taking up residence in the upstairs room of Odd bar and presenting the finest in alternative comics. Headlining this first night is gangly 70s detective Phil Ellis, with help from MC Jack Evans and bodybuilding supremo Jayne Edwards. See our full preview here.
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Elf Lyons | The King’s Arms | Thu 3 Oct | 6.30pm | £4
Elf Lyons is 22 years old, 6ft tall and a pervert. Showcasing her first solo stand-up show, join Elf for an epic hour of anecdotes, erotica, library raps & facts on the London Underground. A prodigious talent, her shows have been likened to Noel Fielding’s, which is made even more impressive by how eager critics are to lump all women together with generalisations about female comedians. A great way to start your Thursday evening.
www.womenincomedy.co.uk

Stewart Lee | The Lowry | Fri 4 & Sat 5 Oct | 8pm | £21
The world’s most hard done to comedian (in his own head at least) Stewart Lee continues to churn out self referential, self deprecating and self loathing shows for those Guardian readers that simply can’t get enough him. All too aware he’s not everyone’s cup of tea he has refined an act that whittles out those that won’t enjoy him. So if you haven’t already got tickets, then you’re probably not going because you think he’s a self-righteous curmudgeon. And that’s exactly what he wants.
www.thelowry.com

Marcel Lucont | The Lowry | Sun 6 Oct | 8pm | £13
An evening spent listening to a hauty Frenchman (pictured) mocking everything that you hold dear about your national identity doesn’t sound like the greatest evening of comedy, but Monsieur Lacont delivers his observations of the British condition with such dry wit and shoeless panache that you can’t help but admire him a little. Not that you’d trust him in a war. Brilliant, overtly sexual comedy from the greatest French philosopher since Eric Cantona.
tickets.thelowry.com

The Didsbury Comedy Club | Didsbury Cricket Club | Sun 6 Oct | 7pm | £6
Comedy in the burbs is once more on the up and up. A wealth of comedians across the North West has meant a better crop to choose from when putting on a smaller comedy night and Didsbury Comedy Club is one such club that is flourishing in its leafy suburban surroundings. This month the welcome Mandy Knight (“A Virtuoso Comedienne” – The Independent), and Peter Phillipson, with one line expert Gary Delaney (“The man Jimmy Carr tries to be” – BBC Online). MC Andrew Ryan keeps things going at a lively pace and shows that you don’t have to head into the city centre to unearth great comedy.
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