YOU have to laugh, don’t you? The credit crunch may be biting ever deeper, but ticket sales are booming for comedy’s biggest names at the Grand Opera House, York.
“Everybody wants to be cheered up at the moment, don’t they?” says press officer Celestine Dubruel.
Only a handful of seats remain on sale for Welsh wit Rob Brydon’s show on March 6, while the February 20 return of Dylan Moran’s bittersweet rant, What It Is, has sold out already: one of 15 extra dates tagged on to the Irishman’s tour that first visited the Opera House for two nights last October.
Likewise, urbane English cynic Jimmy Carr is heading rapidly towards a full house on April 28 with Joke Technician, the gags no doubt further refined since his early tour dates in York on September 28 and 29 last year.
Geordie Ross Noble names the Grand Opera House audience as one of his favourites and the feeling is mutual: fewer than 100 tickets are left for the May 9 and 10 performances of his new show, Things.
“I’ll be covering the topic of things – big things and small things,” says Ross. “Things that have happened to me; things that have happened to you.”
Ken Dodd is still playing all hours God sends him at 81 and is sure to sell out his May 24 gig on past form, and so the best ticket availability is for Cornishman Jethro on February 8 and, surprisingly, Paul Merton on April 7.
On that night, the quick-witted team captain from BBC1’s Have I Got News For You will present Silent Clowns, his reflections on the silver-screen deeds of Charlie Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. Film extracts will be shown, climaxing with a screening of Keaton’s Steamboat Bill Junior.
Merton’s previous York gig, with his Impro Chums last May, was one of many sell-outs in a remarkable year for humorists at the Opera House in 2008. The Mighty Boosh’s record four-night run was the highlight, while Simon Amstell, Dara O’Briain, Tim Vine, Jason Manford, Russell Howard, Frankie Boyle, Paddy McGuinness, Ed Byrne and Roy Chubby Brown all contributed to the cornucopia of comedy.
•For tickets for the 2009 line-up, phone 0844 847 2322 or visit grandoperahouseyork.org.uk
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