Preview: Chuckle Busters week, Wardrobe

Once a fortnight Bristol comedy promoters Chuckle Busters lay on their popular comedy nights, featuring a mix of circuit comics and newcomers, at the cosy Wadrobe Theatre above Kingsdown’s White Bear pub. Next week, though, the CB team have something bigger and better in store: a week of 2015 preview sets, featuring some of the best rising circuit comedians in the land.

Each night will feature two comedians road-testing new material ahead of UK tours and comedy festivals.

From the top, then:

Monday 9: Phil Wang/Ivo Graham
Tonight’s opening pairing features 2010 Chortle Student Comedy Award winner Phil Wang, who has gained much praise for his dry, perceptive humour.
Joining Phil is the Eton- and Oxford-educated Ivo Graham, who won 2009’s So You Think You’re Funny new act competition, at the age of 18 – following that with a Best Newcomer nomination in the 2010 Chortle Awards. That educational CV may suggest an arrogant princeling, but Graham’s comedy actually makes much of his own gaucheness and lack of social sophistication. 

Tuesday: Charlie Baker/Fin Taylor
Tonight’s line-up features the upbeat Charlie Baker, whose mix of banter and songs tends to get audiences on side quickly – plus Fin Taylor (pictured above), once of this parish. Taylor lived in Bristol for several years, and his lively, slightly cerebral/neurotic banter will be familiar to Comedy Box and Wardrobe Theatre audiences.

Wednesday: Joel Dommett/Phil Jerrod
Tonight’s line-up features Joel Dommett, star of Russell Howard’s Good News and Impractical Jokers, and a master of the same sort of arch, knowing, streetsmart comedy also perfected by the likes of Simon Amstell. He’s joined by Phil Jerrod (pictured – “smart, polemical and witty observations full of insight and devoid of cliché,” said reviews site Chortle).             

Thursday: Sean McLoughlin/tbc
Thursday night welcome features Sean McLoughlin, an acidic comic who works in material about his own depression, relationship anxiety and self-loathing – but who, rest assured, creates some absorbing comedy from it all, thanks to a captivating manner and a brilliant turn of phrase. Plus one more act still to be confirmed.

Friday: Mike Wozniak/Joey Page
We wrap up with sets from Joey Page, a high-octane, furiously inventive comic prone to, for example, asking audience members a series of questions and using their answers to weave speedy, imagined anecdotes about their lives. Plus comedian, writer, actor and voice-artist (and 2008 Time Out Best New Act) Mike Wozniak (pictured below).

Chuckle Busters Monday, February 9 to Friday, February 13, Wardrobe Theatre. For more info and to book tickets, visit thewardrobetheatre.com/#/comedy-previews-week/4587662318