CAMBRIDGE FRINGE FESTIVAL: 24TH MAY 2026
A hometown show! The Cambridge Fringe, another reasonably new festival, always seems to fall on my birthday weekend, and this time it was actually on my birthday. I've performed at this festival every year since it's launch and it's run by a small team of incredibly organised, wonderful people, most of whom I know as comedians. The festival itself runs for 2 very hot, long days, across 4 venues, all on Mitchum's Corner, allowing audiences to dash between shows easily without having to walk far. In short, it's superbly thought through, and fantastically well promoted.
As it's a comedy festival, not an all-round fringe festival, I couldn't bring Offgridland to it, as that's a play, so I was back with Restless Monkey Chops. I didn't enjoy performing this show when I launched it in February in Leicester (all my fault, I should add, I just wasn't on it that day), but it's also one of my Edinburgh Fringe shows, so this festival was a great chance to rewrite it and get it August-ready. And rewrite I did...from scratch, a completely new show...about why shows don't work. A potentially risky format, but I really put the hours in last week, making the notes I made back in February after the first version didn't work, into 50 minutes of something worthwhile. It meant a return to stand-up, but still on my terms.
The booking for this show was confirmed in January; I was invited to apply by Dan (a friend, and he's one of the co-organisers of the festival) as I've previously performed there. My venue, as it was last year, was the backroom of the Waterman pub. With it's shed-like qualities and capacity of 30, it's a proper fringe space, the sort of space I tend to do well in rather than the big theatres. In the run up to it, though, I'd only sold 3 tickets. On the day, I had 26 in, which was a relief, and it looked and felt like a sellout - I couldn't see any remaining space.
Before the show, I was a guest in a compilation show in the same venue, performing 10 minutes of my 'club set' in front of about 15 people, on the bill with 4 other comedians, it was a nice midday way to ease myself into the day. Lunch, and then an hour later it was my show. It's a retrospective piece, looking back on various disasters, you know the drill, and I'm dressed as a monkey the whole time which, on the second hottest day of the year so far, wasn't the best move. Comfortably, though, the best I've felt on stage for a long time. For such a new show it seemed to land quickly. I admit, I knew seven of the 26 attendees (Kate, Bryan, Vicky, Alex, Nicole, Alan, Rishi), which helps when you need a laughter boost, but I think I had everyone onside from the start... it was just one of those shows where the audience wanted to like you, and so did.
The whole vibe of the Cambridge Fringe seems to be one of happiness; there are lots of acts bigger than me trying out Edinburgh shows, it feels like one for proper comedy fans to just dive into. A bit like Chesham on Friday, a bit of a hidden secret, but a lovely one.
I enjoyed that. A few of us then stayed out for long birthday beers, catching Ed Aczel's excellent show, and then more birthday beers. A long, slightly boozy end to the day in great company. Being 45 isn't so bad, you know.
26 audience members
Venue hire: £50 admin fee - no venue hire as such, with all of the door money mine
Programme entry: N/A
Fuel from Cambridge: Well, I got a cab in as I wanted to booze afterwards, but if I did drive myself in it would have been about a fiver, so let's call it that.
Door money in: £155
Total: £100 profit
CHESHAM FRINGE FESTIVAL: 22ND MAY 2026
One of the smaller, but still cracking, fringe festivals in the UK is the Chesham Fringe. Now in its third year, I was lucky enough to perform at the very first one a couple years ago and be invited back this year, this time performing Offgridland. The festival runs for three days, and this was the opening night. I was once again back in The Little Theatre, where I was previously, but it's not so 'little' - it's a proper theatre, with a raised stage and a capacity of what I think is 60.
Booking my spot at the festival seemed easier this time, because Ian, who I think is in charge (and seems like a very nice man) remembered me from last time. It's a curated festival, so rather than just booking a venue, you have to be approved by the organisers who allocate you a space and the quality is pretty high...Chesham is a small town (?), they are lucky to have such quality on their doorstep. Their most famous export, Alex Horne, was performing just down the road at the same time as me tonight with the Horne Section.
The vibe here can be summed up by the word 'lovely'. After an hour a half drive, in my little car which seems to have a growing crack in the windscreen (hey, heatwave, your timing is terrible!), I was early so waited outside, sat on some steps, to gather my thoughts and run my lines. Festival volunteers approached me, recognising me from the show listings, and checked in to make sure I'm okay - it's that kind of place. Peter, the soundguy (who I didn't need, but he seemed to also be locking up and generally just being around helping people) was a great sounding board as I tested my levels and he was incredibly positive throughout. He remembered me from a couple of years ago, and said some nice things post-show about my performance and how it reminded him of the great Andrew Sachs.
The audience were a broad range of ages, the two younger couples in the front row were particularly good value when I spoke to them beforehand, indeed one of them mentioned about seeing me in Edinburgh this year. They were very much a 'theatre' audience, taking it in, rather than belly laughs, but they seemed to be with me throughout, despite the 9pm start and the excessive heat. Performance-wise I was quite relaxed (as much as Paul Richards can be) going into it, it started well, then had the dip around the 40-minute mark which to me felt like a disaster but I doubt the audience noticed (it's the same bit every time, seriously, Richards, just rewrite that bit, it doesn't work). The punchline to the whole show was met with roaring approval, as if the whole 50 minutes was actually worthwhile and this was all leading to something after all. I like it when that happens, it happened on the first day in Brighton but not the second, not that I dwell on these things.
Good little show, this, but it can be so much better. And it will, it's on the right track. The drive home was soundtracked by the wonderful radio 4 comedy, North by Northamptonshire, which is an incredibly beautiful bit of comedic writing and should be heard by everyone.
Chesham is lovely and their fringe festival is equally lovely. I hope it doesn't get too big, it almost feels like a hidden secret, and it works so well like this.
22 audience members
Venue hire: none - I'm on a door split (60/40 in my favour)
Programme entry: N/A - online listing only, I think
Fuel from Cambridge: £30
Door money in: I'll update soon
Total: I'll update soon
BRIGHTON FRINGE FESTIVAL: 9TH/10TH MAY 2026
After a bit of a slow start to the fringe year, I'm now on a bit of a run of festivals and first up is Brighton. My eighth time at the festival, and fourth consecutive year...and fourth with a pretty similar production team. For this festival, I was there with three shows; Offgridland, Physical Media and When Gary Left Annie* (*Almost).
Physical Media was a show I wrote for my dear friends, and mightily talented actors, Alex Machell and Nicole Horst. They asked me write them a show at the end of last year, for Brighton, as we've done this festival a few times together and had a marvellous time. I wrote it in early December and we had our first reading in January, but, due to everyone being so busy (mostly with other shows), rehearsals didn't start properly until a month before the fringe, but they were in the safe hands of director Izzy Rees, another one of our regular team. As well as writing it, I played a small role in it, too.
Offgridland is my main tour show for the year. It's a solo show, a play I've been writing for a good while, and I'm under the strict but cracking direction of Cara Hanman, another trusted member of our team who has a sharp comedic brain. Rehearsals have been regular and intense.
When Gary Left Annie* (*Almost) is a collaboration with my friend, Helen Pain, who I've known for about 7 or 8 years now, after we met at the Swindon Fringe, where she was working and I was performing (and indeed winning an award). She's based in Swindon, but we've always wanted to write and perform a show together, and when she came up to Cambridge to meet me for lunch in February we started jotting down ideas, which eventually became a show. We agreed our parts, wrote individually, emailed each other bits, spoke quite a lot on the phone but only really rehearsed once, back in Swindon, above a pub, before she came to Cambridge for a preview and we ran it several times in my living room beforehand.
The Brighton Fringe is the second largest UK festival behind Edinburgh, but there's quite a gap between them. In fact, it's hard to believe there is a festival on if you're walking down the street - there's nobody jumping at you to give you a flyer, and it's not like every pub/coffee house/hotel/toilet has been made into a venue. No buzz, possibly because it's all so spread out, yet Brighton still gets away with being a good weekend away as it's beautiful.
The lovely, if baffling thing about this festival, though is that people do come to shows, they do seem to know about the events even if it may not look like it's been advertised everywhere. Our numbers for Physical Media was outstanding for both days, and brilliant for Offgridland and Gary/Annie on day one (the Saturday) before being naturally lower on the Sunday.
Now, who's idea was it to bring three brand new shows to the same festival over the weekend? No wonder I look so tired. With all three shows in rehearsals all week, followed by two intimate, but fun sell-out previews in Cambridge, we arrived in Brighton on the Friday night in high spirits. Checked into our digs, had a few team beers.
Physical Media and Offgridland were both in the Rotunda Theatre; a well-presented marquee on a pretty patch of grass above an underground car park. A great location, and an established venue. Run by the ever helpful Michelle and Ross, who I've always liked. With both shows back-to-back, it means we could share a tech rehearsal, with our regular techie (and close friend) Alan Morgan on sound duties. Both shows opened to large, positive audiences on the Saturday, before I dashed off with Helen to our evening venue, Ironworks Studios, for the Gary/Annie show. I was a little apprehensive about this venue, simply because it was a new one to me, but it couldn't have been more perfect for our show. The staff were lovely, the space - basically a cafe that's been separated off to feel more like a venue, had a tidy little stage and the venue itself had room for about 30 people. We performed to a wonderful, laugh-heavy audience, and a reviewer who seemed to love it. We were buzzing afterwards and celebrated by joining the others at the Mucky Duck pub for incredibly hot Thai food.
Physical Media was hit by technical difficulties on the Sunday, a brief powercut mid-show, and constant wind battling the marquee. The team did well to get through it. I also struggled with the wind bashing the marquee (and door of the venue) during Offgridland, but given the chaotic nature of my shows, it seemed to add something to it. The Gary/Annie show ended to a small but appreciative audience, where I was a little off the pace but Helen's relentless energy carried it through.
As far as fringe festivals go, Brighton Fringe for me is always a safe banker (in terms of fun, reviews, creative satisfaction, if not financially), there's a reason why we keep coming back. True, so we do treat it as a bit of a social, but also the venues and audiences are typically always lovely. I'll keep coming back.
The figures:
Physical Media: 41 audience members (including 3 comps, and 1 reviewer)
Offgridland: 25 (including 3 comps)
When Gary Left Annie: 28 (including 3 comps and 1 reviewer)
Venue hire for Physical Media: £180
Venue hire for Offgridland: £180
Venue hire for When Gary Left Annie: £270
Programme entry (combined for all three shows): £357
Fuel from Cambridge: £35
Accommodation costs for 2 nights (my share, split between four of us): £170
Door money in: £612.21
Total: £409.79 loss (BUT ... we also made £92.12 in the local Cambridge previews, so I'm saying the loss was only £317.67)
A QUICK UPDATE (9TH MARCH 2026)
I appreciate it's been just over a month since the last update, when this adventure started. That's because there haven't been any other festivals since then, but boy...the admin has been insane! The next festival isn't until Brighton in May, but then there are plenty after that. My shows (two solo, one duo, one full cast) are all in rehearsals ahead of the forthcoming theatrical onslaught. Anyway, here's the latest:
Confirmed festivals: Bedfringe (Bedford), Brighton Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, Langton Green Fringe, Cheltenham Fringe, Camden Fringe, The Rik Mayall Comedy Festival, Chesham Fringe, Cambridge Comedy Festival.
Offers in for: Durham Fringe (just awaiting a contract but I've said yes and agreed the dates)
Accepted for but haven't found a venue yet: Watford Fringe, Greater Manchester Fringe, Scarborough Fringe
Applications in for: Dundee Fringe, Buxton Fringe, Colchester Fringe weekender festival, Lambeth Fringe, Guildford Fringe, Shaftesbury Fringe, Tunbridge Wells Fringe.
It didn't work out with: Barnstaple Theatre Fest (because it's a ballot draw and I wasn't lucky to get picked - shame as I like there and I've had a good time previously), Bath Fringe (because the website was massively confusing after I'd set up my account - it's standard to find your own venue, I get that and happy to do so, but they didn't list any options...I'm guessing I had to randomly Google venues in Bath and ask them if they want a show? I'm still confused, and by the time I queried it, I'd missed the deadline), Ludlow Fringe (because it doesn't exist anymore, it's now the Ludlow History Festival)
LEICESTER COMEDY FESTIVAL: 5TH FEBRUARY 2026
February feels very early in the year to start my fringe adventures, and I was booked to perform in the opening week of the festival, too, which added to my sense of urgency. My promoter for this, the wonderful Ben at Foxy Comedy, booked me in early October last year, and shortly after there was the programme deadline. In October though, February next year feels like a long way off and it really does spring up on you, especially with Christmas dominating a chunk of that time. I'd spent a lot of Christmas writing a play for two cracking actors, Alex and Nicole, which will first be heading to the Brighton Fringe in May (our initial read through in January went well - I just wanted to get this one in the bag before Alex starred in a Chekhov play which opens soon) and I'd also assembled my team to start recording a radio sitcom (the recording of which is a longer process than I imagined but, you know, I'm working with professionals - the first session was last week), and started working on a show with my dear friend Helen which is also heading to Brighton.
With all that and, you know, earning a living teaching and playing music, the two shows I took to Leicester weren't as developed as I liked, but I think the Leicester Comedy Festival is really good for this sort of thing - ticket prices seem to be quite low, and you get a lot performers performing work-in-progress shows. Audiences have always been warm and respond well, there's a reason why I keep coming back... this is my fourth year in a row performing at this festival, and fourth year at the same venue; Wygston's House. I was nominated for 'best musical comedy' at the festival in 2023. It's a room above a pub, not sure of the capacity but it feels like a 50, which is great because it still feels busy with 10 in there. The staff are friendly and I've always felt welcome.
I took two brand new shows there; a very dark comedic play, Death by Congas, which was on at 5.30pm, and then a loose energetic thing, Restless Monkey Chops, which was on at 7pm. I was really worried about Death by Congas, mostly because it's a comedy festival and this one has long storytelling spells without any, well, comedy. Also, I'm wearing a mask the whole time, playing a 71-year-old man, and it features way too much jazz. Logistically tricky, lugging heavy percussion to the venue, and with one rolling audio track which, if it fails, means I have no show. It starts with my character 'dead' on the floor as 'My Favourite Monster' by Cliffords plays (check them out, lovely band), as the audience enter, before jumping into life when a (home recorded) percussion part kicks in which is my signal to jump up and start the show. That was the plan, anyway. In reality, the audience walked in, looked intrigued, and then somebody in the front row knocked his pint over, soaking my legs, so we had to delay the start. It momentarily lost the dramatic intro I had planned, but the attendees seemed to warm me because of it. This show, unlike some of the other stuff I have coming up this year, was a huge experiment but those who were there really bought into it, laughed at the right times, and - as my character dies at the end (not really a spoiler alert, it's kind of implied at the start) and those words, "the coroners verdict: death by congas" played on the backing track, it felt like everyone had been rewarded for the journey.
Which is not what could be said for Restless Monkey Chops. A really simple, freeform concept, in which I attempt to do everything I didn't achieve last year in real life, onstage. Things such as record a percussion album, speak Polish, get fit, learn a magic trick...a lot happened in this show, but also it never quite felt like it landed, mostly because I achieved everything I want to within the first 18 minutes of a 60-minute set, so I had to pad it out with stand-up stuff and way too much audience interaction, neither of which is 'me' these days, before getting back to the point of the show to tie it all in. It's a lovely concept, and as soon as I got home it clicked - I know exactly what didn't work, I'm really, really confident about this one now (which is cool because it's already booked for Edinburgh and other festivals), but it just took an awfully shaky first performance for me to work this out. The small audience, however, stuck with it throughout, and I'm very grateful. Of those six, four of them had seen me last year and came back, and two of them also watched Death by Congas earlier that evening. In the break, those two chaps very kindly presented me with a card game they'd made called 'Leicester Comedy Rivals' and I'm featured in it, with my own laminated cards and everything, as a 'hero'. I signed their copy and gleefully took my one home; it was a flattering, lovely, early fringe moment for the year.
The figures:
Death by Congas: 10 audience members (including one industry comp)
Restless Monkey Chops: 6 (one industry comp on the ticket list but never attended)
Venue hire (combined for both shows): £60
Programme entry (combined for both shows): £144
Fuel from Cambridge (aided by my swanky new hybrid car): £20
Door money in: £88
Total: £136 loss