Upstairs at The Western 2015

It seems like only yesterday that I was eagerly anticipating Upstairs at The Western's bulging schedule of comedy gigs for Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival 2014 and here I am passing on a quick resume of the events for this year.
Following last years over scheduling the theatre has pared back on the number of Festival gigs and has, instead, run them into their spring programme.
This season sees a myriad of different genres of performance reflecting the needs of the community, for this is indeed a community venue, local and community supported.
The Comedy Festival, of course, is stuffed with chortles and guffaws from the likes of Peter Antoniou, The Happy Medium on Fri 6th Feb; Graduated and (still) gagging, a welcome return of DMU's Footlights-esque alumni after their Edinburgh festival triumph; Pariss - Political Correctness Gone Mad, a one off visit to Leicester of the Bag in Drag in a late night cabaret show on Sat 7 Feb at 11.30 (bar open til 1am!); Western favourite Dan Nicholas is back with a 'melodramatic comedy with serious issues' on Fri 13 Feb; and I am especially looking forward to the return of the team who brought us Big Daddy vs Giant Haystacks last year with their new show Those Magnificent Men on Fri & Sat 20 & 21 Feb.
Upstairs at The Western continues its support of emerging talent with another series of workshops including those for puppetry, poetry and stand up comedy. Anyone wanting to get involved should go to their website and follow the links http://upstairsatthewestern.com/

First published in Western Gazette

© Paul Towers 23/1/2015