Two big hitters lined up for next MET Comedy

MET Comedy returns this weekend with another incredible line-up of stand-up aficionados!

First up it's the brilliant, Paul Tonkinson!

A sensational live performer, Yorkshire man, marathon runner and former (double award-winning)
Time Out Comedian of the Year, Paul Tonkinson has long upheld his esteemed reputation as one of the finest stand-ups the UK has to offer. With a unique and distinctive style, Tonkinson is noted for his effervescent physicality and skilful impressions, which bring alive exuberant, tender comic reflections on love, family and the day-to-day idiosyncrasies of 21st century living. A plethora of first class material, combined with tremendous charm and irrepressible, infectious energy make for quite a formidable talent.

On TV, he’s most recently performed on BBC One’s Michael Mcintyre’s Comedy Roadshow and Comedy Central’s The Comedy Store and The World Stands-up. He was recently a contestant on Ch. 4`s hit show Celebrity Come Dine With Me, proving he’s not just a dazzling stand-up talent, but a whizz in the kitchen, scooping first place to win the cash prize for charity. Back in the day, when he was a mere whippersnapper he had a stint presenting Ch. 4’s The Big Breakfast and he has also presented radio shows on XFM in London and Manchester. He has just completed a stint as a Programme Associate on BBC One’s Michael Mcintyre Chat Show.

Also on the bill we have Michael Fabbri!

Michael has been a stand up since 2003 and regularly performs at major comedy clubs throughout the UK and all over the world. He has worked as a writer for Radio and TV and recently had his own stand up series: 'Dyslexicon' on BBC radio 4. He has done several solo shows at the Edinburgh fringe festival and worked as a support act for Micky Flanagan, Lucy Porter, and Stephen K Amos.
He has an affable and electric style of comedy, with material that ranges from the cerebral to the smutty.

Michael regularly performs for all of the major clubs and promoters on the UK circuit, including: The Comedy Store, Jongleurs, Komedia, Glee Clubs, The Stand, Up The Creek, 99 Club, Funny Side of Covent Garden, Off The Kerb, CKP, Just The Tonic, GSOH and Mirth Control.  He also performs at many universities across the UK.

Michael supported Lucy Porter on her national Love In tour in 2008 and supported Micky Flanagan in 2011 at a selection of dates on The Out Out Tour. He also travelled to Amsterdam to take part in the Toomler Festival with Keith Farnan. Not only popular in the UK, Michael has also performed in Singapore, Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The final act will be announced later this week via the MET Studio Facebook page

MET Comedy will take place on Saturday 19th August in the MET Studio at Stafford Gatehouse Theatre at 8pm. Tickets are priced at £12.50 and available from the box office on 01785 619080 or via www.staffordgatehousetheatre.co.uk 

Please note age guidance 18 years+

Gatehouse pays tribute to late Festival star Robert Hardy

 

Stafford Gatehouse Theatre Management is extremely saddened to hear of the death of celebrated actor Robert Hardy on Thursday 3rd August. The actor had a special connection with the theatre having performed in the first ever Stafford Festival Shakespeare production of Henry V at Stafford Castle in 1991.

Born in 1925, Robert Hardy’s acting career spanned an astonishing 59 years. After starting out treading the boards alongside the likes of Laurence Olivier in notable productions with – amongst others – the Royal Shakespeare Company, Hardy became a household name thanks to his performance as Siegfried Farnon in the 1970s TV drama, All Creatures Great and Small.

He went on to star in numerous other TV and film roles, including the lead in Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years – for which he was nominated for a BAFTA – Professor Krempe in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein alongside Kenneth Branagh and Robert De Niro, and Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge in the Harry Potter films.

However, it was his turn as Chorus in the very first Stafford Festival Shakespeare production, Henry
V, that Robert Hardy cemented his place in the hearts of locals. In terms of his presence on stage and off, Hardy was a true professional, as actor and local journalist Rick Lane acknowledges: 

“I was really saddened to hear of Robert Hardy’s death. I had the great pleasure of first meeting him during the Stafford Festival Shakespeare production of Henry V in1991. He was playing Chorus and I was playing Nym, as one of the amateurs from Gnosall Players who were involved in the show. He seemed to appreciate my performance and having worked with him again in Macbeth at the Gatehouse, he went on to ask me to appear in Henry V once more, at Barnwell Castle in Northamptonshire, this time as Bardolph where I had my had shaved and was hung on stage ! This was my first professional acting job. I worked again with him in Henry VIII the following year, at Barnwell Castle, this time with the great man as director

“He was one of the last of the old school gentleman actors and I owe him a great deal. He will be sadly missed” concluded Lane.

Stafford Gatehouse Theatre Artistic Programme Manager and Stafford Festival Shakespeare Producer, Derrick Gask, says:

“Of the many, many great actors to have graced the Stafford Festival Shakespeare stage, I can think of very few who are remembered as fondly as Robert Hardy. His performance as Chorus in our very first production of Henry V helped to raise the festival’s profile enormously and set it on the road to becoming one of the premier outdoor Shakespeare festivals in Europe.

“On behalf of everyone at Stafford Gatehouse Theatre and Stafford Festival Shakespeare, I would like to pay tribute to a fine actor and a wonderful man. We owe Robert a huge debt of gratitude and he will be sorely missed.”

For more information about Stafford Festival Shakespeare visit www.staffordfestivalshakespeare.com