Manchester comedy of the week ft. Phil Ellis, Katie Mulgrew & Chris Kehoe

Funz & Gamez and Phil Jerrod | The Pub/Zoo | Tue 11 Jul | 7.30pm | £5/3
Phil Ellis and his rag tag bunch of children’s entertainers take one last whack in their latest installment of Funz & Gamez ‘Flogging a Dead Horze’, whilst the cynical and astute Phil Jerrod brings his show of going against the grain of a society obsessed with being healthy and living longer. Both subvert the genres within which they lay and have both been hits at past Edinburgh Festivals with Ellis’ Funz & Gamez winning the prestigious panel prize back in 2014. It’ll be interesting to see it without any of the pesky kids about too.
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Katie Mulgrew and Katherine Ferns | Gullivers | Wed 12 Jul | 7.30pm | FREE
Spoken word night Tales of Whatever have been getting in on the Edinburgh preview act too with some stellar line ups recently all for free too. This week they welcome the local legend Katie Mulgrew and not quite as local Katherine Ferns from Canada. Both work as storytelling comedians so fall within the usual remit of a TOW night with Ferns taking the audience on a ‘comedic journey about learning to laugh at the visible and invisible scares of mental illness, domestic violence and drug addiction’, promising a smattering of feminism for ‘comic relief’. In the second half of the show Manchester based Mulgrew will be showcasing her new work ‘about a wardrobe… but instead of Narnia, it’s Lancashire’.
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The Elvis Dead and Rob Mulholland | Sandbar | Wed 12 Jul | 8pm | FREE
More Edinburgh previews here and even more freebies. Red Redmond hosts a double bill of ‘Popular Comedian Rob Mullholland’ who plays fast and lose with meta storytelling and arts council funding and Rob Kemp’s new show ‘The Elvis Dead’. The latter has already marked out as a big hit for this year’s Fringe as Kemp pays tribute to cult classic horror movie Evil Dead 2 via the songs of The King. Both will be ones to seek out at this year’s Fringe come August so it makes sense to get to Sandbar to see them for free right now.
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Chris Kehoe | Gullivers | Thu 13 Jul | 7.30pm | FREE
In his new show ‘Manologue’, Boltonian family man Chris Kehoe (pictured) is looking to answer (or should that be ‘manswer’) the big questions about masculinity in the 21^st century. An intelligent and important voice in the world of satirical comedy Kehoe brings a down to earth charm to his musings on the state of the world and its political machinations. A free show as part of the Greater Manchester Fringe its well worth catching Chris’ show, or if you can’t make it then keep an eye out for his name moving up the lay out of comedy posters.
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