Tom Little does stand-up on a bus

Tom Little is a comedian who’s going places - literally.

The stand-up took his routine to bus passengers around his native Cumbria yesterday –  but conceded an audience liable to leave when it was their stop made for a tricky gig.

He said: ‘You don't get many opportunities to gig in Cumbria that often so it's nice when you do. It’s also nice to do a gig that's only a bus ride from my house - normally it's a long drive for hours.

‘It’s tricky so far, though. It is the strangest place I have ever done a gig and on a bus the audience is always liable to leave.’

Passenger Peter Brooks, on the 600 service to Cockermouth, said: ‘It’s a bit unusual to get on a bus and find yourself in a comedy gig. [This] has cheered up my morning.’

The unusual gig was organised by leading bus operator Stagecoach. Marketing manager Lauren Read said the plan was to ‘surprise and delight the passengers’, adding that Little ‘makes jokes about things you can relate to in day-to-day life which makes it more funny because it's something you might laugh about yourself anyway'. 

She said: ‘Bus journeys are unpredictable because it's members of the public getting onto something; it can be different every day and today was even more unpredictable because we had stand-up comedy.’

The stunt was for Blue Monday’, a day the PR industry has declared the most depressing in the calendar – with no scientific basis – as a reason to launch publicity campaigns. 

Published: 20 Jan 2026