Comedy in Leicester 2012

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From the comedy festival, to Just The Tonic and the Crumblin' Cookie, Leicester offers a wide choice for lovers of funny. In this section we will bring you the dates, the news, the reviews and the comedians.

On this page:

Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival 2012

It was a massive two weeks. One of the UK's (if not Europe's) leading comedy festivals takes place in our city, every year. That puts Leicester on the map. It also gives local people a great chance to enjoy first class entertainment - in their own backyard.

Not forgetting that people come to Leicester from all over the UK (and beyond) to either enjoy the shows and indeed to take part in them. Boffins at DeMonfort University calculated that over two million pounds is added to our local economy because of this one festival.

Artsin went to a few of the shows, mainly the up and coming new acts at the smaller venues. Our reporters came back with their glowing reviews and we all agreed that we had a really good time.

You can read our review of the shows we went to on our Comedy Reviews page.

Dave's Comedy Festival had a lot of highlights; here are just a few:

Exclusive performances by Russell Howard and Rhod Gilbert.

The the brilliant Cofilmic Tour at the Phoenix (an innovation bringing comedy to the screen.)

The opening of Dave's Curry House (featuring special headline guest Mark Little!.)

Comedy Heaven - The line up for the charity gala finale show hosted by Arthur Smith and featuring New Art Club, Vikki Stone, Chris Stokes, Jonathon Mayor, Mrs Barbara Nice, Ben Hustwayte and some very special guests. It was on Sunday 19th February at Curve.

The Silver Standup competition that brought in the funny over-55s which included Julie Kertesz who started a career in comedy at the age of 77.

Folk got excited about the unexpected arrival of Russell Howard and Sarah Millican at the festival (they both performed surprise performances in tiny venues.)

Nationally acclaimed cartoonist Woody (whose work has appeared in Punch, Private Eye, The Sunday Express and The Independent) captured some of Leicester's flagship buildings and added some quirky twists to give them a flavour of famous past masters, shown at the LCB Depot.

Paul Sinha in Looking at the Star. Paul recently became one of the stars of ITV's quick fire quiz The Chase. A while ago he became an Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee. A long time ago he became a doctor. He remains gay, Asian, an all-round good egg and one of the most critically celebrated comedians of recent years. He appeared at the Firebug on Saturday 11th February in two shows

After over 410 shows in around 50 venues, many of which sold out, packed houses and lots of happy, laughing faces, we can safely say: it was all a great success.

Stay in touch on Comedy festival Leicester.

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Spoken word

Dates for all kinds of shows, gigs, concerts and entertainment events