ONLINE sensation, comedian and author Daniel Foxx will bring his new stand-up show, How Lovely, to Pocklington Arts Centre on October 31.
Best known for his viral comedy sketches, Foxx has amassed millions of views across social media. His on-screen appearances span BBC One, BBC Three, ITV and Comedy Central and he has appeared live as tour support for Josh Widdicombe, Rosie Jones and Judi Love.
In How Lovely, Foxx reflects on how he was was determined to handle his Big Break-up with the grace of Julia Roberts, but didn’t, as he navigates the realities of dating in your 30s, a rising Le Creuset obsession and the pursuit of the perfect 12-step skincare routine, all while trying hard to emanate love and light.
Foxx’s debut show, Villain, toured internationally, including a sell-out run at New York’s SoHo Playhouse and London’s legendary Clapham Grand. He co-hosts the podcast Welcome To Hell with fellow comic Dane Buckley and is the author of the hit book Bedtime Stories For Privileged Children. His latest tour show will look to build on that momentum.
Foxx’s appearance adds to a packed 2026 comedy programme at Pocklington Arts Centre, where upcoming shows include Andy Parsons’ Please #@!$ To Mars on May 22 (8pm); Rich Hall’s Chin Music, June 10 (8pm), Hal Cruttenden’s Can Dish It Out But Can’t Take It, June 12 and 13 (7.30pm); Neil Delamere in Reinventing The Neil, July 30 (7.30pm) and PAC Comedy Club, featuring Rob Deering, Eleanor Tiernan, Oliver Bowler and Tom Wrigglesworth, October 1 (8pm).
Daniel Foxx: “Determined to handle his Big Break-up with the grace of Julia Roberts”
Further dates for the diary are: Ignacio Lopez in Nada, October 3 (8pm); Simon Evans in Staring At The Sun, October 21 (7.30pm); Tez Ilyas’s Tez Things I Hate About You, October 23 (8pm) and Brian Bilston’s How To Lay An Egg With A Horse Inside, November 14, 7.30pm.
Pocklington Arts Centre’s Comedy Festival will take place on May 30, opening with Seeta Wrightson’s work-in-progress Fringe Preview of Middling at 1pm, followed by Out Of The Box at 2pm and Brennan Reece’s work-in-progress Fringe Preview of New Jokes at 2.45pm.
Marcel Lucont will present Les Enfants Terribles – A Game Show For Awful Children at 4pm. Then come Tom Neenan’s work-in-progress Fringe Preview at 4.30pm; Sarah Roberts’ work-in-progress Fringe Preview at 6.15pm and the Mixed Bill finale at 8pm, bringing together Lou Wall, Marcel Lucont, Tal Davies, Pravanya Pillay and Raj Poojara, hosted by Kiri Pritchard-McLean.
EXIT stage left 10 Things To See Next Week In York for the still unforeseeable future in these woolly-thinking lockdown times when everyone’s gone to the beach…or Burnsall.
Make do with entertainment at home and now farther afield, in whatever configuration, as you stay alert to working out how to interpret the Government’s green-for-go rules, in the stultifying shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic that has higher figures in York than elsewhere in North Yorkshire, lest we forget.
From behind his door a little more ajar, but still nervous about comings and goings, CHARLES HUTCHINSON makes these suggestions.
Your Place Comedy….from their places: Simon Evans and Jo Caulfield go online for a laugh
Jo Caulfield and Simon Evans, Your Place Comedy, streaming into your living room from theirs, Sunday, 8pm
AFTER Mark Watson and Lucy Beaumont in April, followed by Simon Brodkin and Harrogate’s Maisie Adams in May, Yorkshire’s virtual comedy project Your Place Comedy returns this weekend with a double bill of BBC Radio 4 stalwarts, Jo Caulfield and Simon Evans.
Led by Selby Town Hall manager Chris Jones, ten small, independent Yorkshire and Humber venues unite to present a fundraising evening of humour on the home front, broadcast live from Caulfield and Evans’s living room to yours for free at yourplacecomedy.co.uk. Donations are welcome afterwards.
Here comes the wickedly fabulous Velma Celli, York’s kitchen cabaret diva
Something Fabulous This Way Comes, Velma Celli’s Equinox, June 13, 8pm
DRAG diva deluxe, Velma Celli, the cabaret creation of York actor Ian Stroughair, invites you to “join me in my kitchen as I celebrate all my favourite witchy and misunderstood characters from movies and musicals”.
“Equinox is a love letter to all the witches and magical creatures who have graced our stages and screens, from Wicked to The Wizard Of Oz and every belty enchantress from the coven in between,” says Velma, who will sing the siren songs of the hags and creatures that go bump in the night as she weaves her cabaret magic at the witching hour, when daylight and darkness are almost equal.
Since going into lockdown in Bishopthorpe after an Australian tour, Ian has presented two Velma shows online from Case de Velma Celli: a fundraiser for St Leonard’s Hospice on May 2 and Large & Lit In Lockdown on May 16. Tickets for Equinox cost £7 at: ticketweb.uk/event/velma-celli-equinox-live-stream-tickets/10604915.
Alan Ayckbourn and Heather Stoney: Performing together for the first time in 56 years in his audio play Anno Domino. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
If you haven’t heard Alan Ayckbourn’s Anno Domino yet, why not…?
GOODBYE Alan Ayckbourn’s 83rd play, Truth Will Out, postponed at Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre amid the Coronavirus pandemic. Hello instead to his 84th play for lockdown times.
Ayckbourn has not only written and directed it, as per usual, but he performs in the audio recording too, marking his return to acting, 56 years after his last appearance on a professional stage in Rotherham.
In one of his lighter pieces, charting the break-up of a long-established marriage and its domino effect on family and friends, Ayckbourn, 81, and his wife, actress Heather Stoney, play four characters each, aged 18 to mid-70s. “We were just mucking about in our sitting room,” says Ayckbourn of a world premiere available for free exclusively on the SJT’s website, sjt.uk.com, until noon on June 25.
York Festival of Ideas had a bright idea: let’s go online for a Virtual Horizons fortnight
York Festival of Ideas, staying alert and staying home until June 14
FESTIVAL after festival has bitten the dust in Covid-19 2020, but if one event could be guaranteed to come up with a different idea, it would be…the York Festival of Ideas.
Consequently, ideas are still blooming in June, as the University of York invites you to go on a “journey of discovery that will educate, entertain and inspire you from the comfort of your own home”, under the banner of Virtual Horizons.
The festival team has worked hard with their partners to bring together a diverse programme of talks, music, activities and community trails. Topics range from author Tansy E Hoskins revealing what exactly your shoes are doing to the world (Foot Work, June 6, 1pm), to scientist Phil Ball discussing genetic editing, cloning and the growth of organs outside the body (How To Grow A Human, June 8, 6pm).
Or, if you need your topicality topping up, how about trenchant broadcaster and political commentator Iain Dale mulling over “the phenomenon” of Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a talk “big on comedy and fun” (The Book Of Boris, tomorrow, June 5, 6pm)? Comedy? Fun? Just what we need to tackle the Corona crisis.
L’Apothéose in the grounds of the National Centre for Early Music, St Margaret’s Church, York, in 2019. Picture: Jim Poyner
Fieri Consort and L’Apothéose, National Centre for Early Music streamed concert, June 13
THE NCEM, in Walmgate, York, continues to share concerts from its archive on Facebook and online. On June 13 comes the chance to enjoy music by past winners of the York Early Music International Young Artists Competition, a double bill featuring Fieri Consort from 2017 and last year’s winners L’Apothéose.
Cotton Bud Carousel Horse, by Vivien Steiner: Inspiration for the Scarborough Great Get Together postcard competition. Copyright: Scarborough Museums Trust/Vivien Steiner
Scarborough’s Great Get Together, June 19 to 21
ORGANISED by We Are Scarborough and Say Hello Coast, this event is inspired by the Jo Cox Foundation’s national Great Get Together: a celebration of the late Labour MP’s life and her vision of bringing people together.
This year, it will take place online and will include three competitions: creating a postcard comp on the theme of Scarborough Fair; song lyrics and a multi-genre comp for writers, poets, model-makers and performers.
Voice of an Angel: Christie Barnes recording her role in the York Radio Mystery Plays remotely from home
York Radio Mystery Plays, on BBC Radio York, Sunday mornings throughout June
YORK Theatre Royal and BBC Radio York are collaborating to bring the York Mystery Plays to life on the airwaves in four 15-minute instalments on the Sunday Breakfast Show with Jonathan Cowap from this weekend.
Working remotely from home, a cast of 19 community and professional actors has recorded Adam And Eve, The Flood Part 1, The Flood Part 2 and Moses And Pharaoh, under the direction of Theatre Royal associate director Juliet Forster.
Jane McDonald: New date for her Let The Light In concert at York Barbican next summer
Seek out the good news
YORK River Art Market in July and August, ruled out by social-distancing rules. York Early Music Festival’s summer of Method & Madness in July, called off. Jane McDonald’s Let The Light In concert at York Barbican tonight, lights out. The list of cancellations may show no sign of abating, but you can always look ahead by searching for event updates on websites.
York River Art Market? Charlotte Dawson and co promise a return to Dame Judi Dench Walk in 2021. York Early Music Festival? Watch this space for the possibility of an online version of this summer’s festival emerging. Wakefield wonder Jane McDonald? Lights up on July 4 2021.
The Howl & The Hum: York band release their debut album
And what about…
The debut album for our disconnected times, Human Contact, by York band The Howl & The Hum. Jorvik Viking Centre’s Discover From Home, digital resources for stay-at-home exploration, such as videos, downloads and audio recordings about Viking life and culture. Garden centres, the real green-for-go sign of lockdown easement. Castle Howard reopening its gardens and grounds; bookings only. Walks on Hob Moor, to the Railway Pond. Crepes at Shambles Market. Pextons reawakening for DIY needs and more on Bishopthorpe Road.
Simon Evans and Jo Caulfield: Broadcasting live online from their living rooms to yours on Sunday night
JO Caulfield and Simon Evans will perform live from their living rooms on Sunday in the third edition of Yorkshire’s virtual comedy project Your Place Comedy.
Once more, Selby Town Hall is collaborating with nine other small, independent arts centres and theatres from across Yorkshire and the Humber to provide an evening of entertainment from two touring acts, broadcast live to viewers’ homes for free on YouTube and the Twitch video live streaming service.
After the 8pm online double bill hosted remotely by regular compere Tim FitzHigham, viewers will have an option to donate if they have enjoyed the broadcast. All money raised will be distributed equally among the ten supporting venues, as they each seek to navigate their way through these challenging times when closed down under the Covid-19 strictures.
It’s that Jo Caulfield again…this time entertaining on the home front
After Mark Watson and Lucy Beaumont on April 19, followed by Simon Brodkin and Maisie Adam on May 10, this weekend is the turn of a brace of BBC Radio 4 comedy stalwarts, Caulfield and Evans.
Both have appeared on BBC2’s Mock The Week and Live At The Apollo; between them, they have guested on BBC1’s Have I Got News For You and Question Time, BBC2’s Never Mind The Buzzcocks and Channel 4’s Stand Up For The Week.
They are regulars on BBC Radio 4’s The Now Show, The News Quiz, The Unbelievable Truth and Just A Minute, while Caulfield has starred in three series of her own show, It’s That Jo Caulfield Again, and Evans has written and presented five series of Simon Evans Goes To Market.
Simon Evans, above: BBC Radio 4 comedy stalwart
Host FitzHigham is the writer and star of BBC Radio 4’s The Gamble and presenter of CBBC’s Super Human Challenge.
“Your Place Comedy is a venue-driven initiative that tries to re-establish the traditional relationship between venue, performer and audience that has been temporarily lost during the Covid-19 crisis,” says organiser Chris Jones, Selby Town Council’s arts officer and manager of Selby Town Hall.
“The venues participating in the project have all pledged funds to both support the performers involved and to provide their audiences with entertainment from the kind of artists who, in normal times, would have been appearing in their local arts centre or theatre.”
Umbrella fella: Your Place Comedy host Tim FitzHigham
Chris continues: “While sadly our doors remain closed for the immediate future, this hasn’t stopped venues from across the region working hard to find new ways of delivering high-quality entertainment in innovative formats to the audiences they miss so much.
“All the theatres and arts centres involved in Your Place Comedy are deeply rooted in their communities and want to maintain those vital links that allow them to bring some of the most sought-after national and international touring acts to the towns and cities of Yorkshire and beyond. We are all determined to help keep the live performance industry afloat at a time when it has never been needed more.”
Joining together in this rolling initiative to put the fun into fundraising are Selby Town Hall; The Ropewalk, Barton upon Humber; Carriageworks Theatre, Leeds; East Riding Theatre, Beverley; Junction, Goole; Helmsley Arts Centre; Shire Hall, Howden; Otley Courthouse; Pocklington Arts Centre and Rotherham Theatres.
Simon Brodkin and Maisie Adam: The line-up for the second Your Place Comedy night on May 10
Looking forward to this weekend’s double bill, Chris says: “There’s a distinct Radio 4 vibe this time round with two stalwarts of the network, and two of the slickest, most accomplished and effortlessly funny acts around, Jo Caulfield and Simon Evans, taking to the virtual stage. Both Jo and Simon have sold out Selby Town Hall before.
“In a fit of nostalgia the other day, I was thinking back to the first time I ever saw a live stand-up show…and I’m certain it was Simon Evans, performing as part of the Carlsberg Ice Comedy Network at the University of York in late 2000. I can still remember the gags – and that doesn’t happen very often! He was brilliant.”
What’s next for Your Place Comedy? “We’ll stop and take stock after this show, see what lessons small venues in the region can take from the exercise and whether there is a financially viable future in live streaming that supports artists, venues and audiences as this [venue closure] predicament inevitably runs into the autumn and beyond,” says Chris, who initially had speculated on the possibility of a run of five such shows.
Hull comedian and actor Lucy Beaumont: Her Your Place Comedy double bill with Mark Watson in April drew 3,500 viewers and raised £3,500 in donations
For full details on Your Place Comedy, and to find out how to watch the June 7 show, visit yourplacecomedy.co.uk.
