Shrewsbury International Comedy Festival announces more acts and an MC for this summer’s Gala Show

Shrewsbury International Comedy Festival (SICF) has announced yet more acts for its flagship Gala Show at Theatre Severn this summer.

Due to take place on the evening of Sunday 16 July in a Live At The Apollo style format, the line up now includes Tom Wrigglesworth, Jessica Fostekew and Adam Rowe, already booked to perform, taking on the role of MC. The current line up also includes Clinton Baptiste and Paul Sinha.

Yorkshire funny man Tom Wrigglesworth became a national have-a-go-hero when he rescued a little old lady from the jaws of Virgin train bureaucracy, only to be arrested for begging. His subsequent sell-out show, Tom Wrigglesworth’s Open Return Letter To Richard Branson, bagged him the Chortle Award for Best Show 2010. He is also the winner of Channel 4’s So You Think You’re Funny? competition and his BBC Radio 4 comedy Tom Wrigglesworth’s Hang Ups ran for five series. His television credits include Russell Howard’s Good News, the Edinburgh Comedy Show, Live At The Comedy Store and Engineering Giants. Time Out magazine said of Wrigglesworth: ‘Magical storytelling… a rare talent… hysterical and accomplished’ and the Scotsman newspaper: ‘The gods of comedy chose greatness for Tom’. An articulate and natural raconteur, his warm and hilarious tales told with true passion, never fail to captivate an audience.

Described by The Guardian as wearing ‘her smarts on her sleeve,’ Jessica Fostekew’s acting roles include the films Greed and Official Secrets, as well as Motherland and The Trouble With Maggie Cole on TV. As a comedian she has appeared on Live At The Apollo, QI andSara Pascoe’s BBC Twoseries Out Of Her Mind. Hench, Fostekew’s own show, was nominated for the Dave Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Show in 2019 and won Best Show in the 2020 Chortle Awards. She hosts her own podcast Hoovering, which in less than a year has racked up half a million downloads and is a regular host of BBC R4 Extra’s Comedy Club, as well as a co-host of The Guilty Feminist podcast.

Commenting on the recent bookings, SICF co director Beth McGowan said: “Jessica is new to the festival, Tom has performed before but not at the Gala and we are delighted that Adam has agreed to be an MC – which means the audience will get to see much more of one of the fastest rising stars on the circuit. It’s all shaping up very nicely with a few more exciting announcements in the pipeline. Watch this space!”

Tickets for the SICF Gala Show on 16 July are £33.50 and available through the Theatre Severn box office 01743 281281 or online here: https://theatresevern.co.uk/shows/whatson/shrewsbury-international-comedy-festival-gala-2023

Picture: Tom Wrigglesworth and Jessica Fostekew.