Headliner Justin Panks
JUSTIN Panks tops Saturday’s Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club bill at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, Coney Street, York.
Tony Vino and Liam Bolton will be performing too, introduced by promoter and regular master of ceremonies Damion Larkin from 8pm.
Comedian and podcaster Justin Panks combines a skewed observational eye with the ability to approach seemingly ordinary subjects from extraordinary angles, striking a balance between the relatable and the outrageous.
His tales of relationships, parenthood and life in general are raw, honest and above all humorous, as heard on his weekly podcasts, The Pranks & Firth Show and 3 Speech Podcast.
He prides himself on his ability to adapt to any room, be it rowdy and crowded, a large theatre or an intimate comedy club setting such as The Basement, and he tours internationally, in demand in New York, Valencia, Ibiza, Turkey, Cyprus, Greece, Menorca, Sweden and Denmark.
Tony Vino bills himself as “the only half-Spanish, half-Scottish hybrid working comic in the world”. Born in Malaga, he was subsequently raised in the Costa Del Preston, Lancashire. When he was only a toddler, his father looked around, saw the sea, the sand and the sunshine of the Andalucian coast and thought “we need to be nearer Wigan Pier”.
Comedian and compere Vino has been touring the UK and international comedy circuit since early 2005, mixing observational humour with audience interaction and quick-witted responses.
He hosts festivals and corporate events, called on to entertain for charities such as Christian Aid, Oxfam, Fairtrade Foundation and TearFund, as well as once being the warm-up comedian for BBC One’s Songs Of Praise – a low point in his career, he says.
Experimental comedian Liam Bolton favours a bewildering, train-of-thought approach to unpredictable stand-up comedy.
He co-wrote and featured in the comedy webseries Danger Precinct, starring alongside big names from the UK comedy circuit, such as Mick Ferry and, against his better judgement, Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club’s big cheese, Damion Larkin (“semi-famous in Stoke only”). The show was considered an “underground success”, drawing praise from none other than Jonny Vegas.
Doors open at 7:30 pm. Box office: lolcomedyclubs.co.uk or on the door.