Manchester comedy picks of the week FT Brennan Reece, Mum’s the Word and two new comedy nights

Northern Quarter joint Lost Cat are kicking off the New Year with a new weekly comedy night taking place every Sunday. Only £3 entry and a heap of the best local comics around the first of these shows will be hosted by Ben Silver and features the likes of James Heath, Michael Mannion and Faizal. Well worth finding.

The first Blizzard of the year sets a very high bar for the inclusive Gullivers comedy club as they welcome headliner Jen Ives to the stage. Jen performed on BBC Radio 4, Dave, NextUp at the Fringe, Channel 4 and wrote and performed on the hit podcast SeanceCast in 2022 but still had to battle the nonsense of the ‘gender critical’ movement throughout. Here she dissects the GCs with new show ‘Peak Trans’ as part of a bumper lineup MCed as always by Jonny Collins.

XS Malarkey opens up 2023 with a bumper double bill featuring two excellent rising stars of the comedy world in Sam Lake and William Stone. As an added bonus Stone will be running through his new show “Lofi Comedy to study/relax to” before taking it to the Leicester Comedy Festival in February. A phenomenal wordsmith constantly toying with the idea of what a one liner can be Stone has been on a steady rise for some time and we can’t wait to see this full show take form.

Being a new mum is hard and often not very funny, so please let stand-up Katie Mulgrew and her hilarious pals give you something to laugh about between nappy changes, late night/early morning feeds and generally staring into an endless void. Mum’s the Word is a comedy night (afternoon!) where top acts from around the country get to entertain those who need it most and with half the audience being under 6 months they can kind of say what they want! Experience a night of stand-up like no other, at 1pm in the afternoon.

There’s not much that Brennan Reece hasn’t achieved during his career as a stand-up having appeared on the likes of Live at The Apollo, Roast Battle and Comedy Central at The Comedy Store as well as playing arenas supporting the likes of Joe Lycett, Jason Manford and John Bishop but to be performing back-to-back sold out (almost) gigs in his home town (almost) will surely top them all. There are only a handful of tickets left for both shows so snap them up and make Brennan’s dreams come true!

Rising comedy star Justina Seselskaite presents a night of new and exciting comedy from some of her funny pals including sets from Umby Winters, Kim Smith, James Heath, Ben Stead & Kieran Lawless. And at only a fiver a pop that’s less than a quid per act. In a cost of living crisis that’s some deal! Something different for a Saturday night in the middle of January, give yourself a much needed pick-me-up to get throught the bluest of months.