Tim Harding's best o' Leicester

Reviewer Tim Harding gives a rundown of the comedy he caught at the Leicester Comedy Festival.

It might not be as scenic as Edinburgh, and it’s plagued by an epidemic of people cycling on the pavement, but Leicester is not without its charms, foremost of which is the annual Leicester Comedy Festival, now in its 32^nd year and I believe still Europe’s largest comedy-only festival. 

In the comedy calendar it occupies an interesting spot, taking place all throughout February across more than 60 venues, it’s essentially halfway between Fringes, and the programming is therefore an interesting mix: 50 per cent Fringe shows from the previous year that are very polished and effectively winding down, and 50 per cent work in progress projects that are in their extremely early stages.

They also have some cool programming blocks, with various weekends or venues being taken over by groups like Liebenspiel or the Weirdos, allowing them to run a series of tonally sympathetic solo shows but also come together for one-off collective performances.

This year I was lucky enough to spend a long weekend at the festival, mostly scouting out those early WIPs, some of which seemed almost finished, and some of which will change beyond recognition in the next few months. Here are the 10 most interesting things I caught at Leicester Comedy Festival 2026.

10. On the heels of being nominated for newcomer last year for his fantastic show Fekken, Roger O’Sullivan is back with a new hour, now seemingly without the aid of his PS2-era videos and animations, and focusing more broadly on his hometown of Coachford, his move to London, and how he retains what he calls his ‘peasant mindset’.

9. Joshua Bethania was a new name for me, and – consciously – probably the most low-energy act I’ve ever seen, refusing to raise his voice above a murmur to the point where he was often barely audible in his cavernous venue. It’s remarkable, sort of like anti-comedy, but with jokes?? It’s nice to know that stand-up is available even to those with defiantly non-stand-up energy.

8. Stepdads restaged Les Miserables for us at the Firebug on Saturday night, with a cast including Lil Wenker, Rob Duncan, Jessica Barton, Benjamin Alborough and Ellie BW, none of whom had seen Lis Mis or knew anything about their characters. Under the very loose guidance of Stepdads paterfamiliases Luke Rollason and Tom Curzon, this was an extremely fun and chaotic night which will be different every time.

7. Having triumphed in new comedian awards left right and centre, full-time maths teacher Tom Towelling now has an hour that proves he can sustain the energy between his handful of classic routines like his auto-tuned national anthem. This clever show makes a bid to connect audiences emotionally and literally, gradually tying the room together with twine.

6. Sami Abu Wardeh was notable last year as essentially the only major act to use his Fringe show to address the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and here he’s doubled down with a fiery, uncomfortable WIP in which he takes a decisive step away from clowning and talks about his real life for the first time – his childhood moving around the Middle East, his Palestinian father and the fate of his brother at the hands of Mossad. This was a raw and seethingly intelligent performance. Once it gets hammered into shape it’s going to be a force to be reckoned with.

5. Benjamin Alborough’s last show Absolute Monopoly took him four years’ work before he could even preview it – a sprawling attempt to rewrite the rules of Monopoly every night from scratch, using a vast wealth of prepared material which most audiences would never see. With his new show Playing God, he’s attempting to do the same thing but the for the laws of the universe, exploring how society works through a randomised shiny floor gameshow format. This is early days yet, but I’m sure it will be at least as baffling and exciting as the last one, and once again completely different for every audience.

4. ‘Love could happen right now,’ says Alex Franklin, and so it proved to be, as Franklin established herself as a proper star in the making this festival – her new show Kiss Me was a pure ray of sunshine into this gloomy wet month, and lightyears ahead of her debut. In this hour of dating stories her delightful demeanour and surplus of exquisite one-liners make for sparkling company. This was tremendously enjoyable, and sent me back into the rain with a spring in my step.

3. Chelsea Birkby’s last show was an unexpected Fringe highlight for me, and this new one is a huge step up, potentially into the big leagues if she gets the recognition she deserves. She’s become a PowerPoint comedian, and it’s allowed her to fit twice as many jokes into the same span of time, resulting in a show that’s bursting at the seams with brilliant little moments. The huge gag rate reminded me of Bella Hull’s show from last year, but the feather-light touch and, yes, elegance of the joke writing is all her own. Very impressive stuff.

2. Joz Norris was pretty much universally acclaimed for his last show You Wait. Time Passes, including getting the big five stars from Chortle. This new one, Joz Norris is Hugh Jackman is The Phantom of the Opera is, I think, much better still. Norris has taken on the guise of the Hollywood superstar and perennially frustrated song-and-dance-man to create another show about giving yourself permission to perform and the profundity of dedicating your life to nonsense, but this one is sillier than ever before – a blockbuster of madness. Amazingly this was only the second time he’d performed the WIP, as it felt pretty much finished already.

1. Sam Eley was instantly memorable when he won Sketch Off in character as Basil Crumbwick last year, with his mad papier mache head and his horrible, perfectly constructed five minute set, but it wasn’t clear that it would translate into a consistent character. Well, less than a year later and his WIP absolutely blew my head off. Grimy, swivel-eyed, and stacked with incredible jokes, this was one of the most impressive sets I’ve seen in a long time – debut or otherwise. At one point I was in danger of throwing up from laughing, although that may have been partly down to the massive curry I’d had an hour previously at Paddy’s Marten Inn, easy access to which is just another blessing of this festival.

Published: 20 Feb 2026