Sophie Sparham is a spoken word artist and writer based in Derby. Her work has been featured in the People’s History Museum and UK Young Artists Festival. She has shared the stage with punk legends such as Crass’s Steve Ignorant, Subhumans, Inner Terrestrials and Alan Moore.  Sophie has also performed at various festivals such as Rebellion Festival, Y Not, Shambala and Bearded Theory.  She has also recently given a Ted X Talk at the University of Kent on how spoken word can expand our cultural awareness. 

Her poetry mainly focuses on political and social subjects, such as depression, LGBT+ and feminism. Sophie's debut poetry collection ‘Please Mind the Gap’ is available now and features a foreword from Benjamin Zephaniah. 

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As well as writing, Sophie produces radio documentaries. Her documentary, 'St Pancras Pianos', was broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Photo credit: ACJ Media

Expect killer stand-up, storytelling and characters from this Melbourne-born, London-based comedian. As well as playing comedy clubs and festivals all over the UK, Ireland and Australia, Sarah is also a stalwart of BBC Radio, plus hosted her own radio show on Dalston's NTS Radio "Sarah Bennetto's Mix-Tape", as well as at her cult favourite annual show from backstage at Glastonbury Festival. Sarah is the brains behind Storytellers’ Club, which tours internationally, and guests regularly on huge UK podcasts like Global Pillage, all the great comedy panel shows.

Sarah Bennetto’s past solo comedy shows for Edinburgh Fringe, Adelaide, Perth Fringe and Melbourne International Comedy Festival include: a sitcom about office temping, the true story of having lunch with Prince Charles at the Palace, a hour-long ode to boardgames and Victorian parlour games, a study of her insanely good luck (she’s won a car, holidays, the lottery), staging her own funeral live, and this year: every mistake she’s ever made, presented in list form.

Steve Bennett, Chortle UK "A generous serving of sterling gags and astutely witty observations."

★★★★ The Skinny, Edinburgh "In sharing her litany of mistakes, Bennetto covers huge, emotive topics with the lightest of touch and a lightning-fast wit, rattling through stories and quips so quickly that they don't have the opportunity to land too heavily. She’s also in perfect command of the pacing, so when she does want to touch hearts as well as minds… it keeps the audience spellbound.”

★★★★ One4Revew, Edinburgh "With much glee, delight, and wonderfully evocative imagery, Sarah is an excellent performer, frank and genuine, telling relatable stories which are fun and funny. The last mistake is totally unexpected and unheralded – and all the more powerful for being so.”

★★★★½ The Advertiser Newspaper, Adelaide “Self-depreciating, dark, honest and genuinely funny. One of the most enjoyable and original shows I’ve seen this year. It had me laughing out loud more times than I could count. A solid hour of laughs, it culminates in a truly epic finale.”

★★★★ The Age Newspaper, Melbourne "Bennetto delivers effervescent, confident and well-structured stand-up. Her tales of outrageous fortune are suffused with urbanity and wisdom, and buoyed by a lightly rendered sense of nostalgia"

★★★★ Fest Magazine, Edinburgh “A sophisticated mix of stand-up and character comedy, Bennetto succeeds in harnessing the full power of an instinctive comedic mind.”

★★★★ Rip It Up Magazine, Adelaide “A fantastically original concept. She is bright, funny and fast on her feet, with a wonderful collection of silly characters. A vivid package of silly, clever and sometimes self-deprecating humour that stands out amongst the mass.”

★★★★ ThreeWeeks, Edinburgh "Superb. Devastating. Edges towards perfection.”

Adrian N. George is a comedian, improviser, author, and a few other things, and he's preponderantly dark in theme and humour. He has also been called a "nutter". Not sure if that's good or bad.

Oh, and he's a Romanian, so he took your spot, too.

Since starting stand up Jamie has performed across the UK, near some of Britain’s most famous comedy venues and arenas.

His performances are a mix of dead-pan ranting with a high hit rate of punchlines, with the occasional song thrown in for good measure, guaranteed to get the audience laughing.

Known affectionately in his home county as ‘The Dark Duke Of Cornwall’, Regan provides an intelligent mixture of macabre gags and stories, all carefully crafted and amiably delivered. As well as plying his trade on the club circuit, Regan has performed on comedy stages at some of the UK’s biggest music festivals and has the uncanny ability to have punks, rowdy stag nights and middle-class grandmas; all laughing together at the same material.

Tony Dunn is a multi-award winning comic and acrobat. He is the regular host of the hugely popular Monday Club at London’s Museum of comedy and has been seen wowing audiences up and down the country for over a decade. He is also a vegan.

“Dunn’s writing has an impressive scope and compelling sense of purpose” - Chortle

Writer of one of Dave’s Funniest Jokes of the Edinburgh Fringe in both 2016 & 2017, Adele is a regular at clubs across the UK and has gigged at top venues in Chicago and New York.

She is a finalist in the Nottingham Comedy Festival New Act of the Year and Bath Comedy Festival New Comedian awards and was listed by the Huffington Post as one of the Ten Must See New Acts at the Edinburgh Fringe 2016.

Her interests include falafel and trampolines.

“It’s rare to see a female comedian who specialises in one liners and Adele does this with great accomplishment. The skill of joke writing coupled with her likeable stage persona, mean that Adele is a very promising comic talent. Her material is consistently intelligent, witty and, most importantly, very funny.” – Lynne Parker, Founder, Funny Women

Kahn has a cat, MS, a girlfriend and a hatred of Trump. Sometimes these things get talked about on stage. Other times he goes for the easy option and talks about being vegan…

When he’s not on stage, he runs www.sleazyvegan.co.uk, www.unsaltedpopcorn.blogspot.co.uk or sleeps.

Unsweetened soya milk, as you ask. No sugar. But cake. Always cake.

Unsalted Popcorn Podcast Sleazy Vegan

Local comedian Sami Stone fell into Comedy through her work as a Storyteller in schools & literature festivals in the UK and overseas, learning that humour is universal. As a Stand-Up of 10 years her work is largely autobiographical, peppered with some social commentary.

Sami was a committed vegetarian from the age of 7 and converted to veganism in 2017, on a well overdue wave of change. She is thrilled to be back at Vegfest.

“Wickedly talented and darkly wonderful” – TIME OUT, LONDON “Intelligent yet wonderfully silly” – MONTREAL GAZETTE “Shows a deft touch at combining truth with humour. Well crafted jokes touched with poignancy” – FRINGE REVIEW “A natural performer. Candid and relaxed.”  – THE AUSTRALIA TIMES “Brilliant Woody Allen type truisms” – THE LATEST “She delivered an erudite and dark set exploring the unseen avenues of comedy” – ARTS AWARD VOICE “Set the room alight with a unique kind of carelessness” – VOICE MAG “She went down a storm, so much so the next person struggled to follow her. A very dry kinda Fleabag. Good vibe. Good set. Get her back” – THE STAND

Ryan Dalton, whose quick-witted, cheeky, and sometimes naughty stories are performed with an aggressive charm. Ryan brings his frustrations to the audience, whether it be a story of an uncomfortable hangover in St Lucia or tales of the tricky guests during his time working as a zoo keeper, he tells his stories with the pent-up anger of a criminal yet the voice of an angel.

Alasdair is a legendary comedian, in that there is little historical evidence that he exists. But he does exist. Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year 2017, Alasdair has featured on BBC radio as a comedian and sketch writer, and performed stand-up across the UK, at Glastonbury, Citadel Fest, the Udderbelly Southbank and at the Edinburgh Fringe. He knows quite a lot about 19th century magicians. Tourists often ask to have their photo taken with him, presumably impressed by this.