Manchester comedy of the week FT Jenny Tian, Jack Barry and Paul Hilleard

The Fringe officially begins on Fri 1 Aug up in Edinburgh (though there are previews in the city all week), so XS Malarkey are sneaking in one last WIP before they get back to providing the city’s favourite weekly midweek comedy mixed bill night. Coming in just under the line is the always charming Jack Barry with his new show Let’s Get Barried, ahead of moving to the Fringe for the last two weeks of the festival. A daft and hilarious demeanour belies Barry’s sharp writing hidden in a slacker’s swagger. A delight.

One very much to watch for Fringe 2026, Paul Hilleard won the prestigious BBC New Comedy Award last year and is creating a lot of buzz ahead of his debut in a year’s time (though you can catch him doing this WIP for the last week at the Fringe this year too). Surreal and extremely dry, Hilleard was a worthy if unexpected winner of the beeb’s gong that has also included the likes of Dan Tiernan, Joe Kent-Walters and Janine Harouni in recent years.

Jenny Tian has carved out a terrific career for herself in her native Australia thanks to her funny and clever routines about modern life and her appearance on that nation’s extremely popular version of Taskmaster. Now hitting the UK for a debut tour before heading further West to the US, Jenny’s Travels takes in stories of phone snatching, failing to understand the Scottish accent and “finding herself”. Expect Aussie charm by the bucketload.