These are the shows that made up
London Clown Festival 2023
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London Clown Festival Opening Cabaret
Soho Theatre, Upstairs
12th June, 19:00 (120 mins inc interval)
£13 (plus £3 fees)
Always a fun night to lick off the London Clown Festival.
Join us as we celebrate the opening of the 2023 London Clown Festival with a cabaret featuring some of the festival’s acts alongside some of London’s finest performers from outside of the festival. This is a high energy night that gives you a taste of what's to come in the festival overall.
Come for a night of fun and laughter and discover more to come back for.
Rob Duncan: Baby Trains
Soho Theatre, Upstairs
13th June, 19:00 (60 mins)
£13 (plus £3 fees)
Rob Duncan (from award-winning shows Legs, Logs and Jeremy Segway) presents an hour of professionally researched nonsense, featuring relatable topics including trains and babies.
Winner: The Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality, 2019.
★★★★“Irresistible force”
The Scotsman
★★★★★“Gloriously ridiculous”
ThreeWeeks
“Absurdity at its finest”
Chortle
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Sam Dugmore: MANBO
Soho Theatre, Upstairs
13th June, 20:45 (60 mins)
£13 (plus £3 fees)
Step aside Stallone! Sam Dugmore is locked and loaded as the greatest action hero of all time, unearthing his ruthless man skills to confront his worst nemesis... himself. A dead- sexy mission, filled with chaos, 80s singing, dancing and workout montages, explosions, evil Russians, suppressed raw male emotion and a dog called Fluffy. Extremely camp, extremely silly, extremely entertaining, extremely Manbo.
Best Weekly Comedy Award, Adelaide Fringe 2021 and 2022.
Best Newcomer, Sydney Comedy Festival 2021.
Edinburgh Fringe Award winner, Adelaide Fringe 2022.
★★★★"A physically challenging, extremely silly hour of pure, embodied entertainment"
The Scotsman
Marny Godden: Flap 'Em on the Gate
Soho Theatre, Upstairs
14th June, 19:00 (60 mins)
£14 (plus £3 fees)
Marny Godden has brought to life a collection of very colourful characters. In this, her debut solo show, she mixes clowning and narrative storytelling to take the audience on an uplifting, fun-packed adventure. Meet the Little Wula, a hirsute 15-year-old boy; Mick, a kipper-loving wheeler dealer; Mo Moses, Poo Detective a hoover lady; and Wilmot Brown, the finest actor in London town.
“Sublimely silly, brilliantly surreal” The Times.
“Godden’s style is hilarious” ThreeWeeks.
“Perfectly executed comedy”
Edinburgh Evening News.
“Outstandingly performed” Broadway Baby
The Establishment: Le Bureau De Strange
Soho Theatre, Upstairs
14th June, 20:45 (60 mins)
£14 (plus £3 fees)
Side-splitting, stiff-upper-lipped hilarity from multi-award-winning comedy duo Dan Lees and Neil Frost. These charming and eccentric idiots bring the belly laughs with expert clowning and quick fired wit.
BEST COMEDY ADELAIDE FRINGE WEEKLY AWARD WINNER
★★★★★ "Off-the-wall, zany, crazy, very funny.. two comic geniuses" Glam Adelaide
★★★★★ "One of the best shows I’ve seen this year…top class." Mumble Comedy
★★★★★ "One of the funniest and most nimble-footed pieces of theatre you could hope to see" British Theatre Guide
★★★★★ "A wonderful duo who swing from joke to joke without missing a beat.. the best show I've seen this fringe" Adelaide Advertiser
★★★★ "Silliness as an art form" The Scotsman
★★★★ "A fast-paced, multidimensional masterclass in comedy" Edinburgh Festival Magazine
★★★★ "This is classic British comedy at its best!" What’s On In Adelaide
★★★★ "Amazing...you'll undoubtedly walk away feeling truly enlightened" Voice
★★★★ "They are clowns of the highest order and their timing is millisecond perfect" A Younger Theatre
★★★★ "The Establishment have an unrivalled charm" Fest
★★★★ "Enjoy the charming chutzpah of Dan Lees and Neil Frost…They don’t miss a beat" The Skinny
Ella The Great: An Accumulation of Thoughts Things and Circumstance with Richard Melanin The Third (WIP)
Soho Theatre, Upstairs
15th June, 19:00 (60 mins)
£14 (plus £3 fees)
Internationally acclaimed clown Ella The Great brings together, for the first time, a collection of playful acts lovingly grown from the UK Drag and Cabaret scene.
In this inventive hour of visual Comedy and Circus, we are invited into a world of possibilities by the enchanting 'Richard Melanin The Third.' inspired by silent cinema, mime and the absurd, this “king of clowning brings it every time“ (BoiBox London)
“Richard Melanin III is pure joy in drag/clown form and had the audience giggling like schoolchildren“
Theatre And Other Things LDN
“lights up the stage” The Scotsman
Ella The Great/Ella Golt is a multi disciplinary artist based in London with a background in Circus Theatre and Fine Art Sculpture. After first venturing on the stages at the age of 7, as part of London’s premiere children’s circus, Albert & Friends. Ella has since gone on to do extensive research in clowning, and performed on some of the world’s biggest stages, such as - Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade New York, Adelaide Fringe, The Royal Vauxhall Tavern, Beijing International Festival ,The National Theatre, The Royal Albert Hall, and more sharing Joy Magic and Laughter!
Lucy Hopkins: SECRT CIRCL
Soho Theatre, Upstairs
15th June, 20:45 (60 mins)
£14 (plus £3 fees)
Calling the courageous, the devoted, the faithless and the broken to the interactive ceremony of togetherness we always hoped we’d never need. A divination and reading of the collective hidden depths, probably, if you want. Hosted by everybody’s favourite priestess / shapeshifter / person Lucy Hopkins
Everything is sacred. Magic is reality. Shhhh. Tell evryone.
Lucy Hopkins is an internationally touring, award-winning clown / director / teacher / lover of humans.
“Hopkins is fantastic” The Guardian
★★★★ “A legend among Gaulier clowns” The Scotsman
★★★★★ “Only Lucy Hopkins can Lucy Hopkins like Lucy Hopkins” Fringe Review
★★★★★ “Lucy Hopkins… will transform you” EdFringeReview
Cabaret Impedimenta
Soho Theatre, Upstairs
15th June, 22:15 (60 mins)
£14 (plus £3 fees)
An impossible variety show created by John-Luke Roberts. Amazing acts attempt to perform while confronted by obstacles and increasingly difficult circumstances, randomly chosen by spinning wheels.
Find out if a singer can still sing with a bubble machine pointed point-blank in their face, how a hula hooper gets on while haunted by a Victorian ghost, or if a comedian's jokes work when the microphone is held in the mouth of the oldest audience member.
The late-night sensation of Edinburgh Fringe 2022.
“A brilliant concept, exactly what the Fringe is all about” ★★★★.5 RGM.press
Viggo Venn: British Comedian
Soho Theatre, Upstairs
16th June, 19:00 (60 mins)
£15 (plus £3 fees)
Norwegian clown Viggo Venn has moved to London to follow his life-long dream of becoming a British Comedian.
“Viggo is Norwegian” EdFestMag.com
“Viggo is Norwegian” The Scotsman
“Viggo is a... Norwegian” BroadwayBaby.com
Total sell-out at Edinburgh Fringe 2022, Viggo is doing his show for 1 night only at London Clown Festival!No clowning to see here...
Winner: NATYS New Act of The Year 2022
Runner-up: Leicester Square New Comedian of The Year 2022.
“The most stupid act we have had this year” Simon Cowell
“I thought you were gonna do stand up comedy” Alesha Dixon
London Clown Festival Presents CLONG
Soho Theatre, Upstairs
16th June, 20:45 (120 mins inc interval)
£15 (plus £2 fees)
Ten of the world's funniest clowns compete for the highly prestigious CLONG award.
Who will be crowned the biggest idiot of all?
Hosted by award-winning clown duo Dan Lees and Neil Frost aka The Establishment.
★★★★ "They are clowns of the highest order" A Younger Theatre
★★★★★ "Off-the-wall, zany, crazy, very funny" Glam Adelaide
★★★★ "Silliness as an art form" The Scotsman
"These skilful clowns clearly know how to work the audience and it’s a joy to witness the effects of such assured absurdity." Total Theatre
Healing King Herod
Soho Theatre, Upstairs
17th June, 19:00 (60 mins)
£15 (plus £2 fees)
King Herod, famed for his Massacre of the Innocents, now leads a self-development pyramid scheme. Audiences transform from ancient soldiers into modern clients in an interactive, drag-clown, group therapy session. Through improvised songs, political parodies, breathing exercises and cult-like rituals, Herod asks one thing: forgive... yourself. Within the show's chaotic absurdity lurks male accountability, self-reckoning and facing trauma. Who is Herod's process really for?
Healing King Herod is a recipient of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Keep it Fringe fund. Come to our only full-length official London preview before Herod heads to Edinburgh.
Created by Comedy Central-endorsed clown Riss Obolensky and director Eloïse Poulton.
A VAULT Festival sell-out show, nominated for Show of the Week.
★★★★.5 "Funny, memorable, bold"
The Reviews Hub
★★★★★ "Side-splitting laughs" BroadwayBaby.com
★★★★★"Raging lesbian" DIVA Magazine
★★★★ "Brilliantly weird" Fringe Biscuit
"Weird, fun, undefinable" No Proscenium
"The weirdest and best thing I’ve ever seen" Lost Cabaret Bristol
Akimbo Theatre: No One
Soho Theatre, Upstairs
17th June, 20:45 (60 mins)
£15 (plus £2 fees)
Strange things are happening in Wellston - a haunted pub quiz, students with demonic powers, a missing woman. NO ONE is a modern re-mix of ‘The Invisible Man’ by H.G. Wells as a touching and comic, high-octane thriller.
The show balances laughter and tragedy, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats as the thriller unfolds. We blend emotional scenes with fast paced fights and slick movement sequences.
The story follows Thomas Marvel as he accidentally befriends an invisible man, bringing him fame and fortune, love and violence.
Framed as an investigation by the local police force of the fictional town of Wellston, they question if Griffin truly exists and if he is the violent monster everyone would have us believe.