New Comedy Festival Coming to Brighton Dome in October

Building on the success of Brighton Dome’s year-round comedy programme, a packed Festival lineup offers something for comedy fans of all generations.

In an in-person UK comedy festival first, all events will be live captioned by a team of stenographers led by comedy specialist Claire Hill. Brighton Dome venues are fully accessible, with newly improved accessibility for audiences and artists alike in the Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre, following their major refurbishment.

Big Names And Rising Stars

Headliners include Taskmaster star and bestselling author Fern Brady (24 Oct) and one of The Guardian’s top 50 comedians of the 21st Century, Nish Kumar (27 Oct).

Fresh from Live At The Apollo and Have I Got News For You is Maisie Adam on 24 Oct, and we’re joined by TikTok star and celebrity backing singer Christopher Hall in his debut live tour on 27 Oct, plus stand-up maestro Paul Foot (26 Oct).

A Fine Art

Throughout the festival, cult cartoonists and animators Modern Toss bring their brand-new exhibition The First 8000 Days, for their 20th anniversary. Free to attend, the exhibition will include token-operated art, inflatable fly balloons, stone sculptures and the opportunity to be sketched by the artists themselves. Come along to their late-night screening of classic Modern Toss films and new material and a Q&A with the duo’s own Jon Link.

A Brighton Favourite for You and Yours

On 26 Oct, there will be a special edition of our popular comedy night, Live At Brighton Dome, which spotlights emerging artists and household names, headlined by writer and comedian Sara Pascoe and featuring a never-before-seen performance of cult cartoonists and animators Modern Toss’s Periodic Table of Swearing by Indie choral collective Jam Tarts.

In another Brighton Dome first, TikTok supervillain-assistant Daniel Foxx headlines Live at Brighton Dome Bleeped, a teen-friendly rendition featuring Gen-Z star Finlay Christie and more (26 Oct).

Debuts And One-Offs

We welcome the UK’s first – and funniest – refugee comedy collective, London-based No Direction Home. Mentored by award-winning comedian and member of sketch group Pappy’s, Tom Parry, they'll bring some of their best stand-ups to the Festival for one of their first performances outside London in the Studio Theatre on Sun 27 October.

Fresh from Edinburgh, Alfie Brown (24 Oct), Sophie Duker (25 Oct) and Rob Auton (26 Oct) will perform acclaimed stand-up sets; don’t miss award-winning clown Julia Masli’s attempt to solve audience members’ problems in her show described by The Guardian as ‘healing hilarity’ (25 Oct); and Edinburgh Fringe favourite Spencer Jones (24 Oct), and Live At The Apollo’s Kiri Pritchard-McLean (25 Oct) also stop off in Brighton on their UK tours. 

Kid’s Stuff

Phil Kay visits with his popular hour of interactive fun for children aged 5+ in Gimme Your Left Shoe (26 Oct), and families can see Brighton Festival favourite Shelf at The Kids’ Show, packed with sketches, songs and silliness on 27 Oct.

We'll host a number of free comedy workshops for young people in our creative space, Anita’s Room, in partnership with Komedia Productions. Each workshop is led by local comedian Tom Veryzer who will be accompanied weekly by guest comedians; focusing on different elements of comedy and developing writing skills, the workshops aim to build confidence, and creativity and are packed full of fun.

On Sun 27 Oct, participants will then have the opportunity to perform at The Young Comedians Comedy Show (27 Oct) held in the Studio Theatre, compered by multi award-winning comedian, Michael Akadiri.

See You There!

Brighton Dome will be open to the public throughout the festival with free pop-up events and installations from cartoonists and illustrators Modern Toss.

Brighton Dome’s year-round comedy programme is supported by Mayo Wynne Baxter