Comedy in Tees Valley
by Keith Newton, Evening Gazette
GREAT comics are lining up to bring a variety of great comedy to the Tees Valley. Just choose your style and pick your place, or maybe go mad and take in the lot.
Just look at the list... Doddy, Jim Davidson, Jim Jeffries and Michael McIntyre, plus the witty and wicked diary of Victor Spinetti in the next week alone.
:: THE incomparable and happily indefatigable genius that is KEN DODD completes his latest visit to Darlington Civic tonight as he heads into his 81st year. Call 01325 486555 for details.
:: JIM DAVIDSON is live on stage at the Forum in Billingham on Monday with a show that promises to be more outrageous and controversial than ever. Jim was once one of the bright young sparks, now he is one of the older guard. Ring 01642 552663 for more.
:: JIM JEFFRIES (pictured) is in the vanguard of the new brigade and is at Arc in Stockton tomorrow as part of a 25-date autumn tour with his smash 2008 Edinburgh show Hammered.
“Catch him while you can,” says promoter Graham Ramsay of Ten Feet Tall. “He’s set to achieve global fame after signing up for his own one hour comedy special with American TV giants HBO.
“I’m dead chuffed for Jim. He’s an amazing comic and totally stole the show the last time he was here.
“It’s only the very best performers who get asked to make these specials for HBO and, at the risk of blowing our own trumpets, it shows yet again that we’re now managing to attract world class acts to Teesside on a regular basis.”
Past HBO special stars, by the way, have included Bob Hope, Bill Hicks, Billy Connolly and Eddie Izzard. Ring 01642 525199 for more details.
:: THEATRICAL legend and raconteur VICTOR SPINETTI visits the Georgian Theatre Royal at Richmond tomorrow with A Very Private Diary - Revisited.
With a twinkle in his eye, Victor recounts tales of the great, the good and the not so good with intimate, revealing and hilarious stories of Marlene Dietrich, Frank Sinatra, Princess Margaret, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Sir John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, and The Beatles.
Victor appeared in more than 30 films including three with The Beatles - A Hard Day’s Night, Help and Magical Mystery Tour - as well as co-writing the play In His Own Write with John Lennon. More details on 01748 825252.
:: MICHAEL McINTYRE plays Middlesbrough Town Hall a week tonight as part of his autumn tour. He too has major TV work ahead - he is working on a pilot for a new BBC1 prime-time Saturday night show, Michael McIntyre’s Time Of Your Life.
:: COMEDY coming up includes PADDY McGUINNESS, who is doing the rounds of the region and is next at Middlesbrough Town Hall on Wed, Oct 22.
Details of Michael and Paddy from 01642 729729.
:: ANOTHER Aussie TIM MINCHIN, who has a new DVD out, is at Darlington Arts Centre two weeks tomorrow (Sat, Oct 25). Details from 01325 486555.
