LOL! MANCHESTER - for the funny in the city

This year has indeed seen a mixed bag of events take place over the last 12 months.

• Jason Manford's comedy career went through the stratosphere in 2009. He recorded his first Live DVD at the Manchester Apollo which has since gone on to sell tens of thousands of copies. He also developed "Walk on the Wildside" for BBC1 alongside Steve Edge (Star Stories, The Visit & The Cup). Jason and his Wife Catherine also became parents to twin Daughters.

• XS Malarkey is now into it's 13th year and still gives members & punters alike excellent shows with big name comics for bargain prices.

• Frog & Bucket turned 15 and expanded right across the North West with new venues open in Preston & Wigan

• The Manchester Comedy Festival featured dozens of shows, may of which were sold out.

• Cat Davies wins the very first LOL! Manchester's MCF Spirit Award for her promotion, efforts and organisation of events at both Fab Cafe & Tiger Lounge.

• Graham Goring's "HEX, Lives & Videogames" won the LOL! Manchester award for best Manchester Comedy show.

• Mick Ferry ventured to Edinburgh to perform his Debut Show at the Fringe

• Peter Kay presents the Royal Variety Performance in Blackpool and announced his return to stand up. He subsequently sold out all 83 dates (including 30 dates at the MEN Arena between 2010/11) and became the fastest selling live comedy act of all time.

• Will Petra Kay, Czech Republic's Number one Peter Kay Tribute Funnyman, be making a return soon too? We can only hope so.  See a clip of him here in action!
  

• In January, we reported that Comedian & Promoter Martin Cassidy had died. Dave Turquoise, who also worked alongside him as a street lighting inspector for the Highways Agency said "Martin was a great comedian and a great man. He was so generous and helpful to other comedians"

• John Warburton graduates from the BBC's College of Comedy and gets the green light for his pilot show "The Inn Mates" to be produced for BBC Three.

• In a Manchester Comedy first, LOL! Manchester reviews the Beat the Frog World Series final live ...as it happened. Read that review here.

All that and more kept many interested in the comedy happenings in the City of Manchester in 2009. So, what does 2010 have in store? Well, I guess you'll have to come back to the all new LOL! Manchester website on Monday 11th January to see what joys the new year brings.

Enjoy these last few hours of 2009 and we'll see you next year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!





Wayne Williams
Founder & Editor
LOL! Manchester - for the funny in the city

Email: manchester@thelolnetwork.com
Web: www.lolmanchester.co.uk

LOL!  MANCHESTER is part of the LOL! NETWORK
www.thelolnetwork.com - Coming 2010

Peter Kay has now set a record for the most amount of dates one act has performed at the Manchester Evening News Arena.


The Tour that doesn't Tour Tour, which was originally set for four dates at the venue has now been extended to a massive Twenty shows, which will no doubt make it a bumper pay for the performer as well as Children in Need. Kay announced last night on the BBC charity show that £1 from every piece of merchandise sold at his shows will go to CiN, as well as all the proceeds from the two years in the making official Children in Need single & video he was also involved in.


Here are the dates announced so far...


APRIL: 27th, 28th, 29th & 30th


MAY: 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st & 22nd.


Tickets are available on the Ticketmaster website.

Peter Kay has announced that he is to perform four dates as part of a residency at the M.E.N. Arena in April next year.  It's the Bolton comic's return to stand-up after a seven year absence after last playing the Arena with his final date of his "My Mum wants a Bungalow" tour in back in 2003.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow (Saturday 21st November) at 11am for the four shows taking place on April 27, 28, 29 and 30. If his last run of shows are anything to go by, they are almost definitely going to be snapped up in record time. It has been rumored that he might be playing as many as ten shows which would take him right through to May. Even the websites www.peterkay.co.uk and www.men-arena.com went down for a period of time today due to people wanting tickets before they were available!

It was revealed in an interview with the Manchester Evening News earlier today that these residency shows have been almost a year in the making as the idea was that of the General Manager of the M.E.N. Arena, John Knight. In the Manchester Evening News, John is quoted as saying: "This is a groundbreaking deal in the industry. I first suggested to Peter over a year ago that when he was ready to perform live again he should simply take over this Arena for a run instead of trekking round the country every night. It means that SMG, the operators of the Arena, are promoting the shows directly with Peter. We are working closely together on all aspects of the event - plus he gets to sleep in his own bed every night!"

There is no doubt that fans from all over the UK will swarm to Manchester which will also be seen as a massive economic boost for the City.

So, wanna chance of seeing the man in action? Tickets cost £35 so you'd best get yourselves to the Ticketmaster website from 11am or call the M.E.N Arena directly on 0844 847 8000.  If more dates are announced, we will let you know as soon as humanly possible.


UPDATE: As predicted, he has added 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th & 8th May to his list of dates. Tickets are selling quickly on the Ticketmaster website.

The winners of the North West Royal Television Society awards were announced at a Gala Event in the Manchester Hilton last Saturday night and, as promised, here are the winners of the categories dedicated to Comedy.

The Best Performance in a Comedy award went to
Beverly Rudd in Massive for her role as Tina (on half of HearKittyKitty) on BBC Three.

Peter Kay's
Britain’s Got the Pop Factor and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soap
Star Superstar Strictly on Ice picked up the Best Comedy Programme gong for Lion Eyes Television & Channel 4.

Some exciting news has come our way at LOL! Towers. It has been announced that Tiger Tiger at the Printworks are launching a new comedy night in Manchester from Saturday 12th December. The Big Night Out Comedy Clubs who already have three very successful Comedy outlets in London, including the one at their venue on Leicester Square, are making their way up North to entertain the people of fair Manchester.

The new nights will be taking place on Saturday 12th December & Saturday 19th December as well as a big New Years Eve show they have planned for the 31st December. Tickets for the shows are priced at £10 and are available in advance online via the Ticketweb Service. Tickets for the New Years show will priced differently. See Ticketweb for details. Admission includes the live stand up show and then you can party on until 3am at Tiger Tiger.

No line ups have been announced just yet but it is expected that they should be released within the next week or so. We've got our finger on the pulse of this new night so as soon as we know who's playing the dates above, you will too. London's Time Out describes the Big Night Out Comedy Clubs as the best clubs in London. Lets see what Manchester makes of them.

Getting an award is nice, isn’t it? We’ve just given out some of our own in the last few days so imagine it when the Royal Television Society rolls into Manchester to give out some of theirs for programme making in the North West. The list of those nominated this year features some of the biggest names in TV, both Locally & Nationally. The RTS has released the list of Nominees for the 2009 awards which include two categories for Comedy – Best Performance in a Comedy Series and Best Comedy Series. The awards are being presenting by Comedian John Bishop at the annual ceremony being held this Saturday 14th November at the Hilton on Deansgate.

Nominees from the 21 categories include shows like The Street, Cutting Edge, Dragons’ Den, Celebrity Mastermind and Shameless. Our comedy hopefuls are in the following two categories.

Best Performance in a Comedy

Graham Duff for Ideal - BBC Comedy North & Baby Cow Manchester for BBC Three
Lorraine Cheshire for Massive - BBC Comedy North for BBC Three
Beverly Rudd for Massive - BBC Comedy North for BBC Three
Greg Davies for We are Klang - BBC Comedy North for BBC Three

Our Prediction: Massive have two nominees and is up against the might of the Creator of Ideal himself. Our money is on the Deputy Mayor of Klangbury (a.k.a Stalybridge) himself, Greg Davies.

Best Comedy Programme

Slaterwood - Channel K Ltd for Channel 4 Comedy Lab
Ideal - BBC Comedy North & Baby Cow Manchester for BBC Three
Britain’s Got the Pop Factor and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soap Star Superstar Strictly on Ice - Lion Eyes Television for ITV1
Michael MacIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow - Open Mike Productions for BBC One

Our Prediction: There are a lot of Big Guns in this category but we're backing Slaterwood all the way Baby!

All the best to those nominated. We'll report back here Monday with the prestigious winners from the night!