Rib-tickling fun set for Bury St Edmunds fourth Comedy Festival next year

Bury St Edmunds fourth Comedy Festival will bring two months of laugh out loud fun to Suffolk during funny February and March. 

Growing in size each year, the 2027 festival will be the largest yet attracting a fantastic variety of new rib-tickling shows from some top comedians and new faces as well as tried and tested acts from previous years.

Prepare for a side-splitting rollercoaster ride through two months filled with stand-up, outrageous improv and a comedy cocktail that’ll leave you in stitches in a town where the history is as rich as the punchlines.

The line-up includes critically acclaimed stand-up TV stars such as Jon Culshaw, Rhys James, Jack Dee and Ed Byrne and Fringe First winners Luke Wright and Anna Morris, as well as comedians from the national and international circuits.

Many are new to the Bury St Edmunds Comedy Festival while others are paying a welcome return such as Fascinating Aida and Showstopper! The Improvised Musical.

Venues include Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, The Apex entertainment centre, Hunter Club Arts Centre, Abbeygate Cinema and the ICE restaurant. 

For the second year, there will be a competition to find Abbeygate Cinema’s New Act of the Year 2027.

Giving new comedians a chance to perform, the first heat will be held on Sunday, January 10, with further competitions on January 24 and February 7 and 21, leading up to the headliner and final on Saturday, March 20.

All the heats will be ticketed at £4 per person, while the final will be £10 when the winner will have the chance to present on Abbeygate’s Premier Screen stage with a renowned comedian.

Comedy season at Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds

Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds comedy season begins on Wednesday evening, February 3, with a Royally Funny Comedy Night featuring some of the UK’s best touring stand-up comedians.

The laughter continues on Saturday, February 6, with Jack’s Joke Show when Jack Dee celebrates 40 years in stand-up with a memoir of his favourite old stories, jokes and funny anecdotes offering a glimpse of what shaped his comedy career.

Fringe First winner Luke Wright returns to Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds on Wednesday, February 10 with his new show, Yes.

For 25 years Luke has been writing poems that wrestle with the world around him.

In this new show, he discovers that certainty is rarely as useful as he once thought. Part poetry, part stand-up Yes is about changing your mind without losing your convictions – and staying open in an increasingly entrenched world.

This is followed on Friday and Saturday, February 12 and 13 by Showstopper! The Improvised Musical with spontaneous musical comedy at its best.

Direct from the West End, the Olivier Award winners create a new comedy from scratch at each performance as audience suggestions are transformed on the spot into all-singing, all-dancing productions with hilarious results.

After a sell-out debut tour and appearance on Live at The Apollo, Jack Skipper is back on Sunday, February 14, with his new show, Nothing Heavy, trying to make sense of life, getting older and everything in between. 

Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds next comedy production is Son of a Bitch on Thursday, February 18, a brutally honest and darkly funny monologue by comedian, actor and writer Anna Morris and finally on Thursday, March 25, BAFTA-nominated comedian Rachel Parris brings some of her favourite songs from the last 15 years of her comedy career alongside new stand-up.

On stage at The Apex 

The Apex entertainment centre is joining in the fun on Sunday, February 14, when its popular Fat Club Comedy Club presents three, or maybe four, comedians from the national and international circuits. 

On Friday, February 19, Jon Culshaw will be taking the stage with is new show, Me, Myself and Others.

Star of BBC Radio 4’s Dead Ringers and numerous other television credits, he will take the audience on a whistle stop tour through an array of famous voices in an evening of stand-up, stories, sketches and song.

Next up at The Apex on Saturday, February 27, will be Rhys James with Chop Logic, a fast, forensic show of big ideas and gag-dense overthinking from one of the UK’s sharpest stand-ups.

He will be followed on Thursday, March 4, when one of the world’s greatest cabaret troupes, Fascinating Aida, return with Bawdacious! Devilishly funny and gloriously glamorous Dillie, Liza and Adèle, with Michael Roulston on piano, are back with brand-new songs to bring audiences their greatest, most sensationally show ever.

Ed Byrne takes The Apex stage on Wednesday, March 10 with No Dramas. 

Ed just wants to live a life free of hassles or drama. He feels he’s earned it, but the world has other plans for him.

Hear the conquistador of petty gripes air his grievances with a world hell bent on irritating the bejeezus out of us all.

Finally the Fat Club Comedy Club returns to The Apex on Sunday, March 14, with more comedians from the comedy circuit.

ICE joins in the festival fun

Just a few miles from Bury St Edmunds town centre, the ICE Restaurant joins in the festival with the first of its monthly comedy nights on Friday, February 5.

Go along for an evening of top-tier stand-up and food in a relaxed, welcoming atmosphere.

The line-up includes some of the UK’s sharpest comic talent from rising stars to household names with a mix of acts performing everything from clever observational humour to fast-paced, off-the-cuff crowd work. 

Two events at the Hunter Club Arts Centre 

The Comedy Market at the Hunter Club Arts Centre is presenting two events as part of the Bury St Edmunds Comedy Festival.

Go along for a great laugh on Friday, February 26, and 19 March, arrive from 6pm with the stand-up comedy shows starting at 7pm. The line-up will be announced soon.

More fun nights are being added as the festival dates get nearer. 

To view the full line-up and book tickets priced from £10 per person as well as where to stay, shop, eat and drink visit www. burystedmundsandbeyond.co.uk/comedy-festival.

Bury St Edmunds Comedy Festival is a partnership project between Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, The Apex, The Hunter Club Arts Centre, Abbeygate Cinema and ICE.

It is being coordinated by the town’s tourism brand Bury St Edmunds and Beyond, under Our Bury St Edmunds BID.