Step this way: Jorvik Comedy Award search for champion comedian starts on February 12
FOUR heats, 36 hopefuls, one ultimate Viking comedy champion. Who wil ltake the crown in the Jorvik Comedy Award 2026 competition in York?
Presented by Fair Laughs and hosted by veteran Get Up Stand Up comic Tony Vino, the search for York’s funniest comedian will be supported by Indie York and the JORVIK Viking Centre, with Heat 1 as part of JORVIK Viking Festival Fringe pre-event.
Thirty-six of Yorkshire’s sharpest new comedians will descend on Friargate Theatre, in Lower Friargate. Across the four heats, nine feisty acts each will perform a tight, gag-filled ten-minute set, with only two winners per heat going through to the June 11 final.
The line-up for Heat 1
Quick-witted Tony Vino will invite the hopefuls to the stage as they try to impress the panel of esteemed judges. No safety nets. No sympathy laughs. Only jokes that land or die trying. One title. One year. One winner.
Who is taking part?
Heat 1: Thursday, February 12, 8pm
Marty Riley, Ben Robinson, Stuart Thomas, Fil Milton, Alex Camp, Graeme Rayner, Robby T, Louis Etienne and Diane Fitton.
The line-up for Heat 2
The line-up for Heat 3
Heat 2: Thursday, March 12, 8pm
Liam Alexander, Daniel Colbeck, Josh Sedman, Wendy King, Jake Breeze, Edi Johnson, Laurence Tuck, Rex Purnell and Mikey Milligan.
Heat 3: Thursday, April 9, 8pm
Alfie Carter, Henning Nilsen, Ravi Saini, Jonathon Kiernan, Fred Carver, Stephen Catling, Bobby Jethro, Maxine Wade and Lewis Howard.
The line-up for Heat 4
Heat 4: Thursday, May 14, 8pm
Charlie Lewis, Tim Biglowe, Michael Carter, Benny Shakes, Halls of Ridiculous, Matt Wheelwright, Dom Hutchins, Kie Carson and Debra Holt.
Further comedy events at Friargate Theatre include the monthly home-grown Right Here Right Now improv comedy show (audience participation optional but encouraged!) and monthly Get Up Stand Up live comedy acts hosted by Tony Vino.
Look out too for Alfie Moore: Fair Cop Live – Radio Warm-Up on July 9, when he brings a new show to York ahead of recording his BBC Radio 4 comedy series It’s A Fair Cop.
For tickets for the Jorvik Comedy Award and Friargate Theatre comedy events, call 01904 655317 or go to https://friargatetheatre.co.uk/.
The poster for the Jorvik Comedy Award heats and final at Friargate Theatre
Kevin Clifton in Burn The Floor, returning to the Grand Opera House, York
FEEL the heat, despite the chill, as Charles Hutchinson’s calendar starts to hot up like a burst of tango.
Return of the week: Kevin Clifton in Burn The Floor, Grand Opera House, York, January 21, 7.30pm
STRICTLY champ Kevin Clifton returns to York to lead an international ballroom dance company in the fiery, rebellious tango, waltz and rhumba show Burn The Floor.
“Kevin from Grimsby”, who left BBC1’s Strictly Come Dancing professional roster after seven seasons at the end of 2019, last scorched the Grand Opera House boards in May 2019.
“Burn The Floor is the show that ignited a spark in me and changed me forever as a performer,” he says. “Through Broadway, West End and touring all over the world, this show has ripped apart the rule book, revolutionised our genre and inspired and shaped me as the dancer I am today.” Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york.
Alfie Moore: Front-line copper-turned-comic. Picture: Tony Briggs
Offbeat police procedural: Alfie Moore, Fair Cop Unleashed, Helmsley Arts Centre, today, 7.30pm
FAIR Cop Unleashed, Alfie Moore’s latest stand-up tour show, is based on a dramatic real-life incident from the cop-turned-comic’s police casebook.
Re-live the thrilling ups and downs of the night when a mysterious clown came to town and more than one life ended up in the balance, as recalled with insightful humour by the BBC Radio 4 presenter. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Teddy Thompson: Rearranged gigs in Pocklington and Leeds
Heartbreaker of the week: Teddy Thompson, supported by Roseanne Reid, Pocklington Arts Centre, January 22, 8pm; Leeds Brudenell Social Club, January 23, 8pm
TEDDY Thompson, an Englishman in New York since his 20s, heads home to play his tour rearranged from last year, showcasing his 2020 album Heartbreaker Please.
Famously the son of songwriters Richard and Linda Thompson, he was influenced heavily by Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and the Everly Brothers, rather than his family folk roots, claiming he listened only to early rock’n’roll and country until he was 16. Box office: Pocklington, 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk; Leeds, brudenellsocialclub.seetickets.com.
Vintage performance: Pasadena Roof Orchestra, revelling in the music of the Twenties and Thirties
Nostalgia on tap: Pasadena Roof Orchestra, York Theatre Royal, January 28, 7.30pm
LED by suave singer and band leader Duncan Galloway, the Pasadena Roof Orchestra invite you to “pack up your troubles, come on get happy, and experience an evening of superlative live music with more than a dash of wit and humour”.
For more than 50 years, they have put on top hat and tails to re-create the golden era of the 1920s and 1930s, performing the songs of Irving Berlin, Ray Noble, Cole Porter and their contemporaries, complemented by the hot jazz of Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
One of York artist Ian Cameron’s works on show at Helmsley Arts Centre
Never too late to start: Ian Cameron exhibition, Helmsley Arts Centre, until February 25
IAN Cameron became interested in art “quite late in life”, aged 50 in 2003, when he enrolled for an GCSE evening class. Art and design foundation course studies at York Art College ensued, since when he has taken part eight times in York Open Studios.
In his garden studio, he starts his paintings by doing a wax crayon rubbing on a manhole cover, then covering the rubbing with a vibrant watercolour wash called Brusho that causes a wax-resist result. “On to that I draw my image with a dip pen and Indian ink,” he says. “I embellish the artwork with collage and watercolours.”
Theatre Of The Macabre’s artwork for their Frankenstein premiere at Theatre@41, Monkgate
The horror, the horror: Theatre Of The Macabre in Frankenstein, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, February 2 to 5, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
“IF you think you know everything about this story then come along and be pleasantly surprised about how little you really know,” say Theatre Of The Macabre, introducing the twisted fantasies and grotesque dreamscapes of their adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
“Join us as we discover his innermost fears and misgivings which haunt his troubled mind and how his ungodly experiments defied the Laws of Nature.”
What dreadful secret does he keep hidden? Who is the mysterious stranger he can only refer to as “It”. All will be revealed in this disturbing premiere. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
My Darling Clementine: Delving into Costello country in Selby
Off to the country: My Darling Clementine, Selby Town Hall, February 3, 8pm
MY Darling Clementine, a labour of love for spouses Michael Weston King and Lou Dalgleish, began as a homage to the Sixties and Seventies’ country duets of George Jones & Tammy Wynette and Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash.
Their latest album, 2020’s Country Darkness, reinterpreted Elvis Costello’s country songs in a collaboration with Steve Nieve, Costello’s stalwart keyboardist in The Attractions and The Imposters. Box office for their first gig of 2022: 01757 708449 or selbytownhall.co.uk.
What’s the Buzz? Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard can be spotted flying high in Leeds in April
Bird song: Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard, Leeds Brudenell Social Club, April 23
BUZZARD Buzzard Buzzard, “the most exciting new band to break out of Wales”, promote their February 25 debut album in Leeds on the closing night of their 18-date spring tour.
The Cardiff indie glam rockers’ front man, Tom Rees, says: “Backhand Deals is a practice in subverting the ideology of rock music as something that needs to be ‘brought back from the dead’.
“Rock should be about enjoying yourself honestly, whether that’s washing the dishes, sweeping the yard, or complaining about whoever got elected.” Box office: brudenellsocialclub.co.uk.
