Podcast Queen and award-winning Irish stand-up Alison Spittle!
Her chat show podcast ‘The Alison Spittle Show’ has amassed a huge following with guests such as Sharon Horgan, Adam Hills and David O’Doherty and she performs at podcast festivals across Ireland and the UK. She even has another new podcast ‘Are Findus Crispy Pancakes Feminist?’; an ambitious documentary on the role of Findus Crispy pancakes in the feminist movement of the late 21st century, featuring Kerry Katona.
Alison was a regular contributor to the RTÉ series Republic of Telly where she wrote and performed her own segment ‘A Guide to Mullingar’. She was a team captain on the panel show ‘Choose or Lose’, a correspondent on ‘This is Ireland’ with Des Bishop on RTÉ 2 and also presented television coverage of the music festival Electric Picnic. She wrote and starred in ‘Alison Spittle in Ireland’ a short film produced by Baby Cow Productions for Sky Arts.
Cally Beaton is a keynote speaker, awards host, comedian, business leader, podcaster, writer and entrepreneur. Well-known for being a natural storyteller, full of intelligent, distinctive and insightful material, Cally is one of the UK’s most sought-after names for corporate, broadcasting and live comedy work.
Her television appearances to date include being a regular panellist on BBC2’s QI and The Apprentice: You’re Fired, as well as featuring on: Live At The Apollo, Pointless Celebrities, Richard Osman’s House of Games and The Blame Game.
She is popular with BBC Radio 4 audiences where her appearances include: The Now Show, The Unbelievable Truth, Saturday Live and Museum Of Curiosity. She is also a regular contributor on Radio 5 Live, Times Radio and BBC London.
In 2021, Cally launched Namaste Motherf**kers, the only podcast where the worlds of comedy, self-help and business collide. With the help of celebrity guests and experts, Cally gets to the stories you’ve never heard before – uncovering not your normal life lessons, but some big ones nonetheless, bringing heart and humour into the worlds of work and wellbeing. She is working on a book, incorporating her own insights alongside the life hacks and confessions of her celebrity guests.
Comedy Women In Print is the brainchild of comedian, author, actress Helen Lederer. Its aim is to recognise, celebrate and encourage witty women authors. We’ve created a platform for both aspiring and established witty writers. CWIP not only offers a publishing deal with Harper fiction to a NEW witty writer, but it also gives mega publicity and respect to the BEST funny fiction around.
The Published Novel Winner gets a massive amount of love from clever, celebrity judges and a stonking cash prize.
The Unpublished Novel Winner is published by Harper Collins and receive an advance and huge attention. The Unpublished runner upper’s win a place on an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Hertfordshire and an MA in Comedy at Falmouth University.
The Short Story Winner and Shortlisted entries will appear in (working title cos we like it so much) ‘FUNNY SHORTS’ – an anthology of witty women’s writing, published by Farrago and showcased in the company of CWIP’s much loved witty authors.
Darren Harriott is one of the most exciting comedians on the circuit. Over the last few years, he has hosted Live at the Apollo, BBC’s News Jack Unplugged and CBBC’s The Dog Ate My Homework. He has become a regular face on our screens on panel shows such Mock the Week and Don’t Hate the Playaz as well as giving his viewpoint on popular reality shows; The Apprentice: Your Fired and The Great British Bake Off: Extra Slice. He’s a Comedy Central favourite on shows such as The Comedy Bus and Roast Battle. Earlier this year he wrote and recorded his own 4 part series Black Label on BBC Radio 4.
His work is recognised across the creative industries. Not only did he receive Nominations at Edinburgh for Best Comedy Show in 2019 and Best Newcomer in 2017, but he has also been immortalised in a mural in Birmingham which celebrates the city’s rising Stars.
Following his Best Newcomer nomination for his debut show Defiant at Edinburgh in 2017, he sold out a solo run at Soho Theatre. After his second nomination for best show for Good Heart Yute in 2019, he will be doing not one but two runs at the infamous London location – the second of which is a 5 day run in February 2020.
Originally from Birmingham, and now living in London, Darren Harriott is a regular at clubs such as 99 Club, Top Secret, Backyard Comedy Club, The Boat Show, Up the Creek and The Glee.
A confident performer with a captivating charm, Darren’s comedy deals with everything from subverting stereotypes, to everyday observations, to that juiciest of topics, religion – all with a cutting edge.
Fiona Allen is the star and co-writer of Emmy and Bafta award winning TV series ‘Smack The Pony’
Fiona’s many other screen credits are extensive and include Dalziel & Pascoe, Coronation Street, Poirot, Eastenders, Casualty, Shameless, In Deep, Happiness, Skins (as wife to Bill Bailey’s character), Waterloo Road, Mock The Week, Alan Partridge’s Scissored Isle, Death In Paradise and 8 Out of 10 Cats. She has also appeared in numerous films including 24 Hour Party People, Fat Slags and Gladiatress.
Hal Cruttenden is one of the top touring stand up comedians working in the UK and Ireland today, as well as being a highly accomplished writer, presenter and actor.
He has made several appearances on ‘Live at the Apollo’ (BBC1 & 2), ‘Have I Got News For You’ (BBC1), ‘The Royal Variety Performance’ (ITV1), ‘Would I Lie To You’ (BBC1) ‘The One Show’ (BBC1), ‘The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice’ (BBC2 & Channel 4) and ‘The Apprentice: You’re Fired’ (BBC2).
He’s toured extensively in the UK and Ireland over the last 8 years, he has also taken shows to the Montreal, Melbourne, and New Zealand comedy festivals and he’s recorded three stand up specials for Next Up -‘Tough Luvvie’, ‘Straight Outta Cruttenden’ and ‘Chubster’. Hal’s current tour, ‘It’s Best You Hear it From Me’ is on the road now.
Hal wrote and starred in his own sitcom, ‘Hal’ on Radio 4, as an actor he trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, he has appeared in ‘Shackleton’; ‘Eastenders’; ‘Touching Evil’, ‘Bramwell’, ‘Mrs Dalloway‘, ‘Brexit’, ‘Making News’ and ‘Orwell A Celebration’.
Jim Jefferies is one of the most popular and respected comedians of his generation, entertaining audiences across the globe with his provocative, belief-challenging, and thought-provoking comedy. He was recently named one of the top five touring comedians in the world.
After receiving rave reviews for his 2018 international stand up tour, The Unusual Punishment Tour, Jim is back on the road with an entirely new routine for his The Night Talker Tour, which he’ll be performing internationally and nationally through November 2019.
Jim recently signed a first look deal with Comedy Central for content development in television and digital media. Additionally, Jim’s eponymous Comedy Central series, “The Jim Jefferies Show”, has been picked up for a third season and premiered Mach 19, 2019. As a strong voice in late night, the weekly series features Jim traveling across the globe to tackle the top news stories and controversial issues of the day. In addition to the series, Jim also continues to head up the weekly podcast series, “The Jim Jefferies Show” Podcast, co-hosted by Forrest Shaw. The podcast, from Comedy Central’s Podcast Network, includes interviews and discussions with a variety of guests discussing current news and politics, as well as providing a more in-depth focus on the topics and opinions featured on the television series—with less filters.
In 2018, Jim starred in his third Netflix comedy special “Jim Jefferies: This Is Me Now”. Performing at the Eventim Apollo in London, he unapologetically kept it real opening up the challenges of being a single father, as well as, the weirdest gig he ever played. The year before, he released his fifth major stand up special in seven years, “Freedumb”. The special was Jim’s second to air on Netflix, and followed the huge success of the first, “Jim Jefferies: BARE”, in which he delivered a now iconic routine on guns and gun control in the United States.
In addition, Jim created, wrote, produced, and starred in the critically acclaimed FX series “Legit”, which ran for two seasons and has since gained a cult following. He has also appeared in the films “Killing Hasselhoff” and “Punching Henry”.
The last few years have been extremely busy for the America’s Got Talent winner, on both sides of the Atlantic. 2016 saw Zerdin head to The Las Vegas Strip for a headline residency at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. 2017 and 2018 saw Paul appear on spin-off shows America’s Got Talent – The Champions and Britain’s Got Talent – The Champions. Since then Paul has toured the US and UK with his critically acclaimed ‘All Mouth’ and ‘Puppet Party’ shows.
Zerdin is arguably the UK’s number one ventriloquist and made his TV debut in 1993 as the host of GMTV’s ‘Rise and Shine’. He then went on to win ITV’s The Big Big Talent Show, hosted by Jonathan Ross. Since then he has appeared on countless TV shows including The World Stands Up (Comedy Central), The Stand Up Show BBC!, Just for Laughs Montreal Comedy Festival, Comedy Rocks with Jason Manford (ITV1), Tonight at The London Palladium with Bruce Forsyth and Bradley Walsh (ITV1), Michael McIntyre’s Big Christmas Show (BBC1) and three appearances at The Royal Variety Performance. Winning Series 10 of America’s Got Talent in September 2015, Zerdin and his sidekicks soon went viral on YouTube, receiving millions of views from around the world.
2021 and 2022 Paul toured his Paul Zerdin – Hands Free show which he filmed for Television for a 2023 release.
Paul is a Gold Star Member of The Inner Magic Circle and lives with his foam family in South West London.
Sam Morrison is a Brooklyn based comedian and writer.
He just made his late night television debut on Late Night With Seth Meyers and his solo show Sugar Daddy is currently touring worldwide
He has also performed on The Drew Barrymore Show, appeared on Watch What Happens Live & Tamron Hall, and was staffed on the first season (64 episoides) of Blind Date, hosted by Nikki Glaser, currently airing on Bravo.
Showstopper! The Improvised Musical has been a rip-roaring success since the show started in 2008. It has had eleven sell-out years at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, two West End runs, an Olivier award and a BBC Radio 4 series.
In the show, the audience meets a writer of musicals who is on a deadline – he needs their help. The audience shouts out suggestions of a setting, musical styles and the title of the show and they’re off!
The Showstopper team – cast and band – will then weave a brand new musical in front of the very eyes of the audience, complete with hilarious characters, fabulous dance routines, beautiful songs, epic story lines, all sprinkled with the pzazz of a Broadway show.
Every night is a premiere and they quite literally couldn’t do the show without you, so why not pop down and help them create the next hit musical?
The Sugarcoated Sisters are an award-winning musical comedy duo and real-life siblings from Hertfordshire. Chloe is the blonde, Tabby is the brunette!
The Sugarcoated Sisters launched on TikTok in January 2020 and since then have gained over 600K online followers and over 100M views. Their content covers feminism, dating, UK culture and more packaged as original, well-produced musical sketches.
Tabby & Chloe entered the live comedy scene in Jan 2022, with a guitar and double and scathingly rude original songs. The won Best Newcomer at the Musical Comedy Awards 2022 and have been doing gigs and previews around the country before they performed their Edinburgh Fringe Debut with Sugarcoated Sisters: Bittersweet to massive acclaim in 2023
The 2 Johnnies are Ireland’s favourite musical comedy duo. From their humble beginnings publishing relatable Irish small town life sketches and self released music videos on facebook & youtube, the pair have gone on to produce Ireland’s no.1 podcast, “The 2 Johnnies Podcast”, release 10 no.1 Irish singles, bring live podcast shows to four continents around the world and produce three TV shows on Ireland’s state public service broadcaster RTE.
TV host and award-winning critically acclaimed comedian, Zoe took her first steps down the comedy path in 2003 after training as an actress at the Poor School in London. She went on to win the Funny Women Competition in 2004 and her debut Edinburgh show was nominated for the if.comedy newcomer award. In 2008 she won the Dave, Funniest Joke of The Fringe Award.
Zoe has appeared in many TV shows including Mock the Week, The Wright Stuff, Michael McIntyre Roadshow and many more and is often to be found on the radio and has appeared on many shows.
