I attended the media launch for Blackpool Comedy Festival and the public are in for a treat

The festival, which runs between Saturday, May 24 and Sunday, June 1, will bring world-class comedians, immersive outdoor entertainment, and exciting new programmes to various venues across the resort.

Ahead of the festival’s arrival, I was invited to a special media launch to give us a taste of what to expect, and what a delightful taste it was.

The media launch was held at the Comedy Station Comedy Club in Blackpool, one of 10 venues taking part in the festival.

The comedians Harry Stachini, Justin Moorhouse and Rob Mulholland will take to its stage at the end of May but today was the turn of some of the local players more heavily involved in the festival’s organisation.

Hosting the event was Blackpool radio personality Ged Mills who did an excellent job of introducing the festival’s concept to the audience, including its main highlight - Manford Comedy Club led by Russell Howard- and the new element this year - the South Shore Comedy Takeover.

The new programme of free South Shore events particularly encapsulates the whole ethos of the Blackpool Comedy Festival - that is bringing comedy to everyone in the town - with Ged stating “The important thing is to spread it out across Blackpool”.

In introducing this new programme, Ged was joined on stage by comedian Ruth Cockburn who, as well as performing herself in the festival as part of ‘Black Liver’, had a big part to play in the arrangement of the South Shore Comedy Takeover.

Blackpool born Ruth described one of the takeover events - the Joy Ride on Saturday, May 24 -with particular gleeful humour which incited excitement in the crowd at the neighbourhood opportunities on offer more so than any slideshow.

The humour continued when the Comedy Station’s owner Ryan Gleeson was also invited up on stage to talk more about the festival’s history.

Amongst Ryan’s quips however one statement of his especially stood out- the importance of keeping as many of the events as they could free to make comedy accessible to all.

In a pleasant surprise to me, we were also played video interviews that Ged had conducted with comedians Maisie Addams, Emmanuel Sonubi and Paul Zerdian, who are all performing during the festival.

In all those chats, the comedians’ love for Blackpool was clearly evident and their eagerness to get to Blackpool with their shows jumped through the screen.

Black Liver - made up of Ruth and husband Keith Carter- then performed a few comedy musical numbers for us which whetted our appetites perfectly for the festival to come.

The first was an hilarious song about them being that childless couple and the second a more sentimental song about the beauty and brilliance of Blackpool.

This song was funny but also filled to the brim with local pride and that was what the whole vibe of the festival launch was and hence what we can expect from the Blackpool Comedy Festival.

All the speakers at the launch, whether it was the local comedians on stage inside the Comedy Station Comedy Club or the global stars speaking over a Zoom from whether they were in the world, sound like they can’t wait for the festival to start and we here at the Blackpool Gazette agree!