Tag: I Daniel Blake

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Dave Johns, Paul Pirie & Josh Sedman to play Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club on Saturday in York Barbican lounge

Dave Johns: From Wallsend with laughs

THREE top comedians take to the Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club stage in the YO1 Live Lounge at York Barbican on Saturday.

After a lifetime as a comedian, Dave Johns was tipped for Best Actor at the Academy Awards for his lead role in Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake, having won at the Cannes Film Festival and picked up a BAFTA.

A string of further awards followed, culminating in Best Actor at the British Independent Film Awards.

Appearing on the stand-up comedy circuit since 1989, North Easterner Johns is a regular guest on comedy panel shows Never Mind The Buzzcocks (BBC2) and 8 Out Of Ten Cats (Channel 4).

Scottish comedian Paul Pirie: from the bitchy to the silly

Johns no longer tours the country or the world and is highly selective about where and when he performs comedy these days, so Saturday’s show will be a rare chance to catch him in York.

Joining Johns on the 8pm bill will be Paul Pirie, Josh Sedman and regular host Damion Larkin, the Laugh Out Loud promoter.

Pirie took up stand-up after giving up acting to pursue the funny man that lies within, establishing himself on the Scottish comedy circuit as long ago as 2004. Soon after, he was runner-up in the Scottish Comedian of the Year awards and he now combines live performances with television, film and radio.

Yorkshire comic Josh Sedman with his “Wetherby Teeth”

A physical, theatrical presence on stage, he specialises in rapid-fire comedy that blurs the lines between real-life anecdotes and flight of fancy. “It has been observed that he channels the late Robin Williams at his most excitable and many regard him as the natural hierarchy to Billy Connolly,” says Larkin.

“With a set that jumps from bitchy to silly, you’re never more than a line away from a great pun, insight or well-crafted punchline, delivered with a ferocity that makes Paul’s humble beginnings on the Scottish circuit seem such a long time ago,” says Larkin.

Award-winning Yorkshire comedian Sedman has enjoyed fast career progression since 2022, equipped with “Wetherby Teeth”(apparently Yorkshire’s superior version of “Turkey”,  and a lovely head of hair.

Doors open at 7:30pm. Box office: https://www.yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/laugh-out-loud-comedy-club-sept-2025/ or on the door.

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Dave Johns to play two Laugh Out Loud gigs at The Basement at City Screen tomorrow. Tony Burgess on first bill too

Dave Johns

LAUGH Out Loud Comedy Club will play host to two shows tomorrow at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, both featuring I, Daniel Blake film star and comedian Dave Johns.

Joining him on the 5pm bill will be BBC sitcom star Tony Burgess, Ben Silver and master of ceremonies/promoter Damion Larkin. Simon Wozniak will take over from Burgess on an otherwise unchanged 8pm line-up.

North Easterner Johnshas been part of the stand-up scene since 1989, playing all the major comedy clubs and comedy festivals in the UK and beyond, such as the Kilkenny Comedy Festival, in Ireland, Montreal’s Just For Laughs Comedy Festival and the Adelaide Fringe and Melbourne Comedy Festival in Australia.

He has worked on stage too in the Middle East, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Johannesburg, Sydney, New York, Amsterdam and the Arctic.

As a scriptwriter, his credits include his stage adaptation of Stephen King’s novel The Shawshank Redemption, co-written with Owen O’Neill.

He has acted on the West End stage with Christian Slater in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and appeared in Twelve Angry Men, at the Assembly Theatre, Edinburgh, where he also performed in The Odd Couple alongside Bill Bailey and Alan Davies.

Johns played the title role in Ken Loach’s 2016 film I, Daniel Blake, winning that year’s BIFA for Best Actor and a BAFTA too. He is a regular guest on comedy panel shows Never Mind The Buzzcocks (BBC Two) and 8 Out Of Ten Cats (Channel 4).

Tony Burgess played DJ Troy, Moz’s crazy, vinyl-obsessed brother, in the cult BBC3 comedy Ideal and starred in his self-penned, seven-part BBC One/BBC Three sitcom The Visit. His stand-up comedy has brought him the City Life Comedian of the Year, the runner-up’s place in So You Think You’re Funny and nominations for best stand-up and writer at the North West Comedy Awards.

Founder member of the topical MEN At Work team at the Comedy Store in Manchester and regular compere of the Frog and Bucket Comedy Club, he is a playwright too, his plays Fire Salad and Doorway being premiered at the Royal Exchange Studio Theatre in Manchester.

He wrote for the first two series of Ideal and co-wrote the Sony Award-winning BBC Radio 4 comedy The Nightclass with Johnny Vegas, along with writing for Steve Coogan’s Paul And Pauline Calf’s Cheese And Ham Sandwich, Vegas’s Who’s Ready For Ice Cream, John Bishop’s series John Bishop’s Britain and Lily Savage.

He has a writing credit for Wallace And Gromit’s The Curse Of The Were Rabbit, to the delight of his children who consider he now has a proper job.

Cheerfully self-deprecating, unpredictable Scouse comedian Simon Wozniak has had a meteoric rise from the bowels of the comedy industry to headline the premier British comedy clubs.

Ever modest, he says: “Not much to say really. I have two pairs of jeans for all purposes, work and recreation, mix and match. I’m a part-time contact lens wearer, full-time glasses wearer. I’ve got no thigh gap and I still drink Capri-Suns.”

Ben Silver once crowd-surfed a gig he was hosting, so prepare for anything! He has gigged all over the world, is a regular at London’s clubs, has written for BBC and Comedy Central shows and taken six solo tour shows to the Edinburgh Fringe.

Tickets can be booked at lolcomedyclubs.co.uk. Further shows at The Basement are booked for April 6, May 4 and June 1.