£10 West End shows

His Credit Crunch Cabaret shows will be a the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, for five Mondays from February 9 to March 9 – with tickets priced £10.

Acts confirmed to play include Al Murray , Dave Gorman, Chris Addison, Russell Howard and Richard Herring, all stablemates at the Avalon agency that manages Skinner.

A raft of non-comedy guests will also appear, including Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, who memorably appeared drunk on Skinner’s ITV chat show, singer Connie Fisher and musicians Ian Broudie and Hugh Cornwell.

All the acts have agreed to work for a fraction of their usual rates to keep the ticket costs down.

When he was planning the gigs last month, Skinner said: ‘I’ll end up on less than I was on when I performed at the Comedy Store in the Eighties, but I think this is important.

‘Comedy is the best way to forget what’s going on in these dark, depressing days, but it costs about £30 to watch a big name in the famous venues so I’ll do it at an affordable price. Hopefully it will spread to other cities’

Tickets go on sale on Monday, but line-ups for specific gigs have not been announced.

The shows were put together with the help of Nica Burns of Nimex Theatres and the London Evening Standard.

Published: 23 Jan 2009