Tickets are now on sale for duo Doggett & Ephgrave's proposed two-day Hitchin Mostly Comedy Festival.
The 2021 festival of laughs will take place at Hitchin Town Hall on Thursday, July 22 and Friday, July 23.
Subject to the government’s roadmap out of lockdown remaining on course, it will be the popular Hitchin club’s first live dates in 17 months.
Both gigs will feature a standard mixed bill in the first half, with the acts returning to the stage in the second half to be interviewed by Glyn Doggett and David Ephgrave for their More Than Mostly Comedy podcast.
The Thursday show is headed by Dead Ringers’ Phil Cornwell and Friday by Mock The Week regular Zoe Lyons.
The festival will also feature sets from Jenny Collier and Lynn Ruth Miller.
To ease worries about COVID-19, the club will reopen to a maximum of 50 per cent capacity, irrespective of whether the government lifts all restrictions or not.
Opening night headliner Phil Cornwell is an actor, comedian, impressionist and writer who’s probably best known as one of the regular team of the BBC’s radio and TV series Dead Ringers, although he’s also achieved international recognition as the voice of Murdoc Niccals in Damon Albarn’s virtual band Gorillaz.
He rose to prominence as a regular voice on Channel 4’s Spitting Image, going on to impersonate Mick Jagger and David Bowie on BBC Radio 1’s Steve Wright in the Afternoon in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
These impressions, augmented by many others, formed the backbone of the cult BBC TV series and 2004 film Stella Street, which he co-wrote and performed with the late John Sessions.
He also plays Alan’s local radio nemesis Dave Clifton in I’m Alan Partridge and the 2013 film Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa.
Zoe Lyons is a stand-up and presenter who took her comedy first steps in 2003 after training as an actress at The Poor School in London.
She went on to win 2004’s Funny Women Competition and her debut Edinburgh show was nominated for the coveted Best Newcomer award. In 2008 she won Dave’s Funniest Joke of The Fringe.
Zoe is often seen on all manner of TV shows from BBC’s Have I Got News For You, QI and Mock The Week to her regular stints as a panellist on Channel 5’s The Wright Stuff.
Her radio credits include BBC Radio 4’s Just a Minute, The Unbelievable Truth, The Now Show and The News Quiz.
She also began hosting BBC Two’s new teatime quiz show Lightning earlier this year.
Proudly Welsh comic Jenny Collier joins Cornwell on Thursday’s bill.
Jenny is a multi-award winning stand-up comedian, writer and actor, and an established regular on the international circuit.
She has supported Jason Manford, Arthur Smith and Shappi Khorsandi on their UK tours and written for everything from BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz and The Now Show, to Huffington Post and Glamour Magazine.
Lynn Ruth Miller completes the Friday night bill.
Born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1933, Miller lays claim to be the oldest working stand-up comedian on both sides of the Atlantic.
She started her comedy adventure at 71, after a successful career as an author, newspaper columnist and TV pundit.
Since then, she made it to Vegas in America’s Got Talent in 2008 and reached the top 100 contestants in Britain’s Got Talent.
In 2020, she published her autobiography, Getting the Last Laugh.
Both gigs at the Brand Street venue in Hitchin will be emceed by Doggett & Ephgrave.
Doors and bar open at 7.15pm, with the first act on stage at 8pm.
Tickets are £15 per gig, with a limited allocation at £25 for both dates, all-inclusive.
To book tickets, visit www.mostlycomedy.co.uk.
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