NextUp Comedy

After Lloyd’s last tour was interrupted by ‘you know what’ and ended up lasting 8 years or so, he’s BACK with a brand-new, fresh stand-up show for 2023. This is his biggest tour to date, and he is pumped / really needs you to come. Since school Lloyd has always been a show off, doing anything he can to make people laugh, and 20-odd years later, nothing’s changed. There’ll be his unique bag of stand up, dubious impressions, and obviously a sprinkling of his (incredible) singing. Lloyd Griffith is: One Tonne of Fun.

Jason Byrne is back for more comedy chaos, celebrating 25 years(!) of consecutive touring. Audience Precipitation is a brand-new fun, happy and joyful show from 'the outright king of live comedy' (The Times). Jason has learnt over the past few years that we all need to 'play' a bit more in our lives. With this in mind, Jason will do what he does best: connect with his audience in a way that no other comic can. Expect the Irish funnyman to invite - or drag, as it has been known in the past - people up onto the stage and make a "holy show of them", as they'd say in Ireland. Jason's Audience Precipitation tour will be a laugh-out-loud, must-see show with a light drizzle of audience participation... ooohhh, clever that!

The award-winning comedian Alasdair Beckett-King is legendary, in that there is little historical evidence he exists. But he does exist. His debut solo show opens a cabinet of curiosities, tackling the conundrums of impending extinction, archaic axioms, emotional repression and vegan flimflam. Come and see it, please. Winner Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year 2017.

Alison loves to do star jumps in the water. She also likes to watch people fight in chip shops. Her two worlds collide as a fight breaks out in aqua-aerobics and she's never felt so alive. When the foam settles, Alison realises she's an outwardly nice person who lives for confrontation.

Star of BBC Scotland's Up For It! and BBC Radio Scotland, Ashley Storrie returns to the Fringe with a raw and hysterical show about mental health and the ways she uses humour to overcome her pain.

In this revolutionary (see what we did there?) show, Steel tells us in a hilarious fashion what happened in France between the storming of the Bastille and the rise of Napoleon - bringing to life the people who made them happen. Brilliantly insightful and full of laughs, it puts the peculiarity of individual people back at the centre of the story.

Jason Byrne, half man, half natural disaster. Over the course of his accident-prone life Jason has been rebuilt from the ground up. Bits removed, metal pins, new knee, and an eye that’s been treated, over the years, by the medical profession like a game of Pong. This all culminated last year with heart surgery, twice! He enjoyed it so much he went back for more. Join the most gifted live comedian on the planet as he invites you to laugh at his misfortune. If he tried to say Schadenfreude, he’d probably dislocate his tongue.

Sea levels have been rising Alasdair’s whole life. But for the first 16 years he was getting taller, so he didn’t notice. Now 6″2, Alasdair Beckett-King is the only comedian brave enough to speak out against that wet bastard: The North Sea. Nevermore is more than an anti-sea diatribe. As a 500 year old man ABK is uniquely poised to draw parallels between the history of the ever- shrinking British Isles, and his own childhood in the swinging 1990s. The multi award- winning stand-up comedian unravels some of life’s shallowest mysteries: What are train guards actually guarding? Why wasn’t Jaws set in County Durham? Does his hair do that on its own?

Cool, smart and humble to boot, Archie Maddocks presents a provocative, unflinching hour of life, love, loss and laughs with candid authenticity. Delve into Archie’s deepest, darkest thoughts on toilet technique, kebabs and growing up in London as he exposes his flaws, and interrogates his personal connection to Grenfell Tower.

Debut stand-up hour from sarky Londoner Lily Phillips. Star of The Stand Up Sketch Show (ITV2), Lily's dry, smutty wit made her a [y]2021[/y[ New Comedy Award finalist (BBC One). She wanted to write a show about feminism, but ended up with a bunch of jokes about her dog's vadge. Also seen on BBC Three, All 4, E4 and Comedy Central. Chortle One to Watch 2022, Leicester Square New Comedian of the Year runner-up, Funny Women finalist, and Pleasance Reserve alumnus.

Safe everyone. English Comedian of the Year winner and star of Comedy Central Live and Dave's Hypothetical. Tour support for Joe Lycett and 'almost certain future star' (Chortle.co.uk), Josh takes us through the past two years of his life, trying to have a baby and accidently losing Captain Tom's birthday cards in his own unique and hilarious style. Amassing over three million views on his Twitter videos and regularly headlining the biggest clubs in the country Josh is ready to f*ck sh*t up this Fringe (as a friend).

The biggest-titted Edinburgh Best Show nominees return in their darkest-ever adventure. Learn the horrifying true story of what happened when Amy and Christopher-Louise decided to hide from their problems on a remote island. As tensions flare and psyches fray, how will Yorkshire's finest meat-themed duo survive?

During lockdown, comedians experimented with hundreds of online comedy gigs that connected people worldwide. Access Festival curates the best examples of these, beaming comedians from their homes into yours via Zoom and NextUp. So this January - stay in, warm up and enjoy over 15 unique and hilarious virtual gigs that pioneer a new way to enjoy comedy, streamed directly into your home.

Angela Barnes has good intentions but trying to live your best life, as it turns out, is really bloody hard.

Hot on the heels of her sell-out Edinburgh Fringe run, Here Comes Trouble is packed with brilliant routines and fantastically embarrassing stories. Audiences can expect razor-sharp observations and scandalous one liners as Jo gets her claws into everything and everyone. From yelling at strangers on trains (and many other places), to discussing ridiculous sexual fantasies and annoying her neighbours, Jo doesn’t mean to cause trouble; she just has the nerve to say out loud what everyone else thinking! This is Jo Caulfield doing what she does best: pure Stand-Up. Just Jo, a microphone, and a bad attitude.

After a completely sold out and critically acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Festival, Andy is back with his brand new show, Bafflingly Optimistic. We’ve been visited by the Four Horsemen in the form of Disease, Death, War and overpriced Ketchup, so what hope can there be? Andy is Bafflingly Optimistic. 'For those who worry that we are going to hell in a handcart, Parsons will at least make you enjoy the ride' - The i

Rob Rouse (Bottom, BBC's Upstart Crow) has performed stand-up since winning So You Think You're Funny? at Edinburgh in 1998. Now, aged 48, he is no more mature. 'Belly laugh funny' (Herald). 'He's a man with genuinely funny bones' (Sunday Times).

In the blink of an eye, Shappi has clocked up 50 years on this planet, a quarter-century as a comedian. What would the 25-year-old Shaparak think of this incarnation? Two dogs: very good. Tory friends: what has she become!? And why are there still so many things she doesn’t know, or is just learning now: is it going to take another 50 years? A fast-paced, celebratory hour from this much-loved Fringe institution and the author of forthcoming memoir, Scatterbrain.

A ward-winning musical comedian and improviser Rachel Parris gives us her fresh, life- affirming collection of songs, stories and stand-up here in the live recording of her hit solo show Best Laid Plans. Reflecting on childhood hopes for the adults we thought we’d become, and sticking a joyful middle finger up at depression in the process, Rachel’s deft moves between jazz riffs, musical theatre, and the perfect response to that Flight of the Concords song, will have you tapping your feet as you laugh through the tears. Named The Independent’s ‘One to Watch’, Chortle award nominee Rachel’s songs are regularly played on BBC Radio 4 and BBC 6 Music. All together now: “No house, no husband, no child, no wage? No problem!”

In her award-winning stand-up show, Esther Manito (Live At The Apollo, The Stand Up Sketch Show) looks back at the era of lad mags, landlines and cock-n-ball graffiti. A time where the media said her Middle Eastern heritage was filled with misogynistic men, whereas the West absolutely had (and still has) sexism sorted. Has lad culture really improved? Does 90s Essex have the answers?