Manchester Comedy of the Week ft. David Cross, Todd Barry & Duncan Oakley

Quippodrome | Gullivers | Mon 13 Jun | 7.30pm | £4
Comedians are constantly striving for originality (well, the good ones at least). Jokes, gags and sketches that an audience won’t have seen before to really make them pay attention, and with that Manchester is very fortunate to have one of the most original nights of comedy once a month in the Quippodrome. Jayne Edwards, Jack Evans, Edy Hurst and Jon Whiteley each create scenes and ideas a fresh for each show and the result is a whirlwind of bizarre characters and some of the most original comedy you’ll find anywhere in the country.
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Todd Barry | The Pub/Zoo | Mon 13 Jun | 7.30pm | £12
Speaking of original comedians, Todd Barry comes to these shores with absolutely zero material in his show ‘Crowd Work’. Crafting wild narratives around the answer to the age-old comedy question ‘what do you do for a living?’ this is comedic originality at its truest and best. Those put off by the idea of getting picked on by a comedian can worry not as there are only standing tickets left and surely Barry’s acerbic wit won’t reach the back of the room. Certainly his microphone wire won’t.
www.seetickets.com

Duncan Oakley | The Old Monkey | Wed 15 Jun | 7.30pm | £3
Manchester’s Trapdoor Comedy continues to offer great live comedy and a ludicrously low price in some of the city’s most unexpected but delightful venues. This month they welcome musical comedian Duncan Oakley to cracking Holt’s pub The Old Monkey. Mixing stupidity and smarts Oakley has been winning audiences over with his infectious charm and hilarious songs for years. Also on the line up is Jack Evans of Quippodrome and brilliant comedian fame, so make sure you bed in early for an ace night.
www.wegottickets.com

Dan Nicholas, Peter Fleming and Wilbur Bib | Gullivers | Thu 16 Jun | 7.30pm | FREE
More inventive and original product from three of the country’s finest up and comers, who here offer previews of their Edinburgh shows. Dan Nicholas flits between interactive games and surreal one-liners, Peter Fleming is the TV producer that time forgot and Wilbur Bib is a child detective obsessed with the paranormal and an absentee father. Definitely three to keep an eye out for if you’re heading to the Fringe this year this is a great chance to see all the excellent nonsense for FREE.
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David Cross | Manchester Academy | Sat 18 Jun | 8pm | £22.50
One of the U.S.’s greatest stand ups David Cross comes to the UK with a mission to ‘make America great again’, something he seems way more adept at than the grotesque orange gentleman currently running for the highest office in the western world. Cross is incendiary, crude and pointedly intelligent, and his stand up shows are often filled with vitriolic spewings on the state of current affairs and the close mindedness that threatens to tear the planet apart. So what we’re saying is don’t go expecting Tobias Fünke, do go expecting one of the world’s most accomplished comedians.
www.manchesteracademy.net