Comedy
Famous comedians from Birmingham include Sid Field, Tony Hancock, Jasper Carrott and Shazia Mirza. Other leading figures include Jo Enright (Lab Rats, Phoenix Nights, Time Trumpet), Natalie Haynes, James Cook, Weakest Link winner Andy White and Barbara Nice (the creation of actress Janice Connolly). The Glee Club and Birmingham Jongleurs are both prominent comedy venues. The Drum Arts Centre and the mac also host monthly/regular comedy sessions while smaller independent comedy promoters/ venues include The Cheeky Monkey Comedy Club, The Laughing Sole (in Strichley) and Laughing Cows (Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath) with other nights at Old Joint Stock Theatre (city centre), and Alexandra Theatre (Real Deal Comedy).
The Birmingham Comedy Festival was founded in 2001 and runs over 10 days at the beginning of October with a line-up that combines leading TV names with rising talent from Birmingham and the West Midlands. Among the leading acts who've appeared at the festival are Frankie Boyle, Jimmy Carr, Lee Evans, Ken Dodd, Peter Kay, Michael McIntyre, Lenny Henry and Dylan Moran. 2012's festival was headlined by John Bishop and included over 60 events around the city. The independent festival is open to not only stand-up comedy, but any art form, including theatre, music, visual arts, film, dance and spoken word.
Read more about this topic: Culture Of Birmingham
Famous quotes containing the word comedy:
“The difference between tragedy and comedy is the difference between experience and intuition. In the experience we strive against every condition of our animal life: against death, against the frustration of ambition, against the instability of human love. In the intuition we trust the arduous eccentricities we’re born to, and see the oddness of a creature who has never got acclimatized to being created.”
—Christopher Fry (b. 1907)