The Frog and Bucket Comedy Club in Manchester has announced the ten finalists for the Beat the Frog World Series final on Monday 3rd November.
They are:
Madeleine Brettingham – Writer from London. This year’s So You Think You’re Funny? winner. “Turned to stand up after Michael McIntyre came to her in a dream and told her to (true story).”
Laurie Brewster – “Sardonic Southerner now living in Newcastle” and a So You Think You’re Funny? finalist, “big eyes and big punchlines.”
Louis Etienne – this Bradford born stand up is “cool, calm and complicated. Oh and also a mechanical engineer.”
Max Gill - is from London and likes watching football and comedy. His favourite chocolate bar is a Twix (he’s not wrong…)
Archit Goenka – "Indian turned British", he’s a So You Think You’re Funny? finalist and Komedia Awards winner, “who absolutely loves cricket and a good chai.”
Joe Gurski – Screen writing graduate from the University of Manchester originally from Teeside. Likes Pokemon, gay pop music, and “mindlessly scrolling through Instagram until I hate myself.”
Joe Hodgson – Idiosyncratic stand up from the Oldham comedian, “favourite pasta shape is farfalle, thinks it’s really funny when dogs have human names. Has a dog called Frank.”
Ste Lomas – stand up from Liverpool, hobbies include, “getting divorced and injuring myself. I detest eggs unless they’ve been used to bake a cake or made of chocolate.”
Rob Nother – Irish comedian based in Dublin with some sharp political material. “I love Guinness and my mother.”
Molly Rob – deceptively quiet demeanour, big laughs from the stand up from Cockermouth.
The night will be hosted by Rob Mulholland who won the competition himself 10 years ago.
The final is just three weeks after John Bishop returned for a cosy gig at the Frog while on his mammoth 25thanniversary tour as the club was the site of his first ever gig. So you never know who you will see at the beginning of their career. Telling the BBC prior to his return to the club, “I had to come back here (The Frog) because this stage and this room changed my life.”
The four competition heats began at the end of September where everyone who “beat the frog” throughout the year compete to be crowned the winner. Every Monday the gong style night pits acts against the audience. Three people are given cards by the compere, then the acts take to the stage all competing to complete their full five-minute set without being “croaked off”, which happens when all three of the cards go up. At the end a winner is selected via a “clap off”.
Last year’s winner of the World Series was local act Murph and the runner up and panel prize winner was Shannon Griffiths.
The list of World Series alumni over the years is impressive. 2020’s winner Dan Tiernan went on to win the BBC New Comedy Award, has many TV appearances under his belt and all three of his solo shows have been nominated for Edinburgh Comedy Awards. Ola Labib who was a finalist in 2019, had a TV pilot The Pharmacy on Channel 4 earlier this year and was the first black Muslim woman to perform at the O2 when she supported comedian Mo Gilligan. World Series winner Brennan Reece has since been seen on Live At The Apollo alongside many other TV appearances and has had a string of acclaimed solo shows that have played around the world.
Buy tickets for the show here.
