Scratch Nights X Live Comedy

Tiffany is having a very important phone call, in fact, this might be it, her big break in Corporate Manchester, if she gets this call just right, so why can't she find the right fucking pair of tights! This is a physical comedy sketch that explores the silliness and stupidity of what professionalism actually means, and a personal vendetta against tights.

About Terri Jade Donovan

Terri Jade Donovan is a disabled, hard of hearing and neurodivergent actor and writer from Stockport. They recently won the Bruntwood Prize for Playwrighting's Special Commendation Award in July 2025 for their dark comedy DOG DOG DOG, which was also a finalist in Theatre 503's 2024/2025 International playwriting prize.

As an actor, they trained at RADA (Foundation) and The Lir Academy (BA Acting) and have worked across theatre, radio and screen.

Connect: Instagram - @terri_donovan5

Meet Stan, the local Lollipop Man. Stan’s hivis coat isn’t the only thing reflecting, as he looks back on a long career holding “the stick.” And he’ll tell you it hasn’t all been sunshine and lollipops (definitely not lollipops, as he has type two diabetes). But especially now, with his job on the line, his beloved budgies gone, and his wife Debra now also dearly departed. If only he could stop his bad luck as easily he can stop Ford Mondeos.

About Michael Hartless

Michael Hartless is a Liverpool based artist with a love of comedy. For the past couple of years, he has worked behind the scenes in TV, helping to produce comedy sketches for shows such as Comic Relief and Children in Need. He has recently begun dipping his toe into theatre, taking part in the Stage Write Programme at the Liverpool Royal Court, where one of his short plays was chosen to be developed as part of a Christmas show called Stocking Fillers, alongside work from other writers. This time, he’s stepping into the light himself, performing on stage as a character for the very first time.

Connect: Instagram - @hartlessgram

We've all got secrets. Dona Mobilay has two of them. One involves intimacy with an icon. The other is, uhm, private and health-related. But maybe now's the time to lay it all out on the line. Because whether life's comedy or tragedy, survival is key.

About Donal Hutera

Donald Hutera is a veteran UK-based arts writer (The Times, The Stage, etc.), devising performer (Olivier-nominated Rhiannon Faith Company, Posh Club*Dance Club, Christopher Matthews/formed view), mentor, dramaturg, erstwhile curator and occasional PR (Taiwan Season Edinburgh Fringe showcase). Commissions include Scary Grant and Choreographus Interruptus (for Guardians of Doubt aka GoD) and two outdoor performance installations for InTRANSIT Festival. Thanks to producing house Duckie he's also been a part of Gay Shame, Princess (a Georgian-era queer promenade), The Dirty Thirty beauty pageant and New Faces 2025. Most recently he played the meanest but prettiest of three Ugly Stepsisters in Dende Collective/Church Street Elders' Cinderella. 

Connect: Instagram - donoldhut | Facebook: Paulo Post | X: @DonaldHutera

In this new work-in-progress performance, Holly pulls at the threads of growing up in Chesterfield and her tendency towards nihilism, inherited from her mum. But what if life could be a little more whimsical? Under strict instructions to not write jokes about her mother (because what’s the point in jokes?), Holly turns her attention to your mum – breaking down the unwritten rules of playground banter and cynicism along the way.

About Holly Redford Jones

Holly Redford Jones is an award-winning comedian, theatre maker and musician, originally from Chesterfield and based in Manchester.

Never quite fitting in with the crowd, Holly casts a playful light on everyday life and societal norms with a heartfelt and quietly subversive energy, channelling the wonkiness of her hometown icon: the Crooked Spire.

Her debut show ‘I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar’ combines stand up, storytelling and live music in an imaginary lesbian bar. The show won ‘Best Stand-Up Comedy’ at the Greater Manchester Fringe 2024, received two Keep It Fringe Awards (2024 & 2025) and multiple 5-star reviews and sell out audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe 2025.

Holly is currently developing ‘I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar’ with a live band to tour nationally in 2026/27, alongside new stand-up material. She also designs and delivers creative workshops in a range of educational and social settings.

“Redford-Jones is a masterful storyteller” – To Do List

“Sharp and charming” – The Student

“Holly Redford-Jones is clearly a massive talent. Her warmth on stage is infectious, and she has a way of drawing the whole audience into her world” – Canal Street Media

Connect: Instagram - @hollyredfordjones | Website - www.hollyredfordjones.com

It's a bad day - Seemingly simple tasks like making a GP appointment, finding jobs, renting a flat, dating, having dinner collapse... The line between ordinary life and surreal, magical realities begins to blur.

Every difficulty brims with uncanny innuendo to real life, are they mere coincidences? Or something far more unsettling? But how could it be possible? It must be an illusion, this was just a bad day.

About Blank Peng

Blank Peng is making her mark as one of the UK's most distinctive and compelling new comedy talents. She began her comedy journey performing stand-up in Mandarin before moving to London in 2022. Her sharp observations on culture, identity, and everyday life have quickly garnered her industry recognition. You can find her at BBC 3, Radio 4 and Capital Xtra etc.

Connect: Instagram - @blankpeng404

Comedians often make observational jokes about public transport, to appear more relatable to their audience... But what if they became the public transport. Kathy has got on her fair share of trains as a gigging comic who can't drive. On one tedious train journey she thought, 'what would each train company be like if it was a person?' Using character comedy and clowning she answers this question in true Kathy Rivett style… Yes; utterly ridiculous.

About Kathy Rivett

Kathy Rivett, "an explosion of mad energy"(Chortle) is one of the most exciting young acts on the circuit. At just 19 years old appearing BBC 3 with the New Comedy Awards, the following year being chosen as a Chortle Student Comedy Award finalist and this year she's been announced as a Leicester Comedy Festival Circuit Breaker. She uses silliness to "redefine alternative comedy" (Blizzard Comedy) and create a whirlwind of absurdity.

Connect: Instagram - @kathy_rivett | Facebook - Kathy Rivett

Legendary Danish chair designer Hans J Wegner once said, "if only you could design one could chair in your life... but you cannot". Alternative comedian Cerys Bradley would like to write one good show in their life and they would like that show to be about chairs. Chair is a show trying to answer all the questions you have about chairs. What makes a chair a chair? Who makes all our chairs? Why do bisexuals sit on chairs so bisexually…?

About Cerys Bradley

Cerys Bradley is a queer and autistic alternative comedian. They won the inaugural Neurodiverse Review Award for Actually Autistic Excellence for their 2022 show Sportsperson and were nominated again in 2025 for their semi-improvised, choose your own story, fantasy adventure show Queer Tales for Autistic Folk. They have performed for Comedy Central, Rosie Jones's Disability Comedy Extravaganza and BBC Radio Wales. They like to send photos of chairs they find abandoned on the street to their friend Kate.  

Connect: Instagram - @hashtagcerys | Website - cerysbradley.com

This is about how I accidentally acquired an untrained emotional support dog, Lola, with as many issues as me. It’s about two flawed lives connecting. It’s about the joy of a dog and Being present. And whether, maybe, Lola is proof animals have consciousness.

About Beneca

Beneca is a neurotic human with autism and generalised anxiety who writes jokes and likes to think about theories of humour and the nature of consciousness.  
Lola is an isabella-tan dachshund. She likes food. She likes sleep. 

Alex Dunlop is trying to perform a stand-up set while his own thoughts refuse to stay quiet. Two voices interrupt the performance, questioning his choices, his opinions, and whether he’s coping as well it seems. Set against memories of growing up in Bradford, Black Sheep follows a man caught between expectation and self-doubt as he uses telling jokes to hold it all together trying not to unravel.

About Alex Dunlop

Alex Dunlop is a comedian, writer, and facilitator from Bradford. He has been performing stand-up across the UK for over eight years and has MCed hundreds of gigs. He has presented on the BBC’s The Travel Show and was the Comedy Producer for Bradford 2025 City of Culture. He has taught comedy workshops and projects with organisations including Leeds Playhouse, the University of Manchester and Imperial College London. 

Connect: Instagram - @alexdunlop

Not a work in progress. No progress will be made. This is a work in regress. In an experiment that is kind of like Bagpuss except horrible, Frankie Thompson is collecting horrible things.

Things she’s picked out of her ear, found stuck to the bottom of her shoe, retrieved from the back of the sofa and unexpectedly found in a sandwich. She sniffs them, licks them and then puts them into a show.

At least 70% of the horrible things will have been created in the two days before the show, so please do not come if you’re expecting content, plot and/or structure. Any horrible things that are exactly the flavour she’s looking for will stay, all other horrible things will be recycled responsibly.

If you laugh it’s comedy, if you don’t it’s live art.

About Frankie Thompson

Previously an emerging idiot, now a receding idiot. Frankie Thompson is a clown, performance artist and comedian. Her award nominated one woman adaptation of Cats The Musical ‘CAttS’ had a sold out run at Edinburgh Fringe 2022, produced by Soho Theatre, and three sold out runs at Soho Theatre and Bristol Old Vic. CAttS was named in the Guardian’s top five comedy shows of 2022 and was nominated for Best Show in the 2022 Chortle awards. 

'Hysterically Funny, Deeply Strange' - Four Stars, Time Out

'we all need a bit of Frankie Thompson in our lives' - Five Stars, ToDoList 
  
Connect: Instagram - @FranklyFrankie98