In the market for a laugh Students help promote Leicester Comedy Festival shows
For those of you in need of an uplifting break from recent world events, this week sees the welcome return of Leicester Comedy Festival with hundreds of performances running in over 60 venues in Leicestershire from 8 - 26 February. The festival, which is estimated to contribute over £3 million to our local economy, includes shows at our own Leicester O2 Academy.
In the midst of Leicester Comedy Festival, students from our School of Business have collaborated on a live project to promote shows by Radio 4 comedy stars Viv Groskop, Shirley & Shirley and Leicestershire’s own Rachel Parris.
MSc Marketing students Rochelle Dsouza, Miranda Sun and Amsa Zanna Ibrahim have been promoting the following shows:
Shirley & Shirley: Not Just A One-Night Stand 11 February, 8-9.30pm at Curve Theatre - Rehearsal Room 2
Following six years of performing at the Edinburgh Festival and headlining at last year's Bloomsbury Festival, Shirley & Shirley (Joanna Carolan and Pascale Wilson) are set to perform at Leicester's renowned Curve Theatre. The stars of Radio 4’s Sketchorama are regarded as “two of the freshest and most energetic performers” (James Corden) and without doubt the best British-Surinamese, Irish-Palestinian double act working on the comedy circuit today, so this promises to be a night full of laughs.
Viv Groskop - Anchorwoman 12 February, 4.40-5.30pm at The Criterion, Millstone Lane
Viv Groskop embodies the meaning of multitalented: she’s a stand-up comedian, writer, critic, broadcaster, MC and former Artistic Director of the Bath Literature Festival. The media have called her “wonderfully witty” (Time Out) and “witty, clever and observant” (Edinburgh Festival), while Dame Judi Dench commented “My God girl, you’ve got some guts!”. Following her five-star, sold-out 2016 Edinburgh show, Viv presents her latest work-in-progress, exploring our relationship to the news and why it’s so annoying at the moment… there might be quite a lot to say.
Rachel Parris – Best Laid Plans 12 February, 8.40-9.35pm at Kayal, Granby Street
One of the stars of Austentatious (5*, The Times), award-winning Oxford University music graduate Rachel Parris returns to her hometown with a comedy show about not having it all. With her trademark comic songs and stand-up, this upbeat show is about starting again, the housing market, break-ups and not going to the gym. Rachel has been described as “Tim Minchin in a frock” by The Londonist and The Guardian says “one sometimes doubts that Britain’s Got Talent, but Parris has it in spades”.