Theatre Royal Winchester is set to host an incredible line-up of well-known comedians and comic performances this spring and beyond.
A season of humour begins with the Winchester Comedy Festival: Spring Gala 2026 (Saturday 21 March) featuring stand-up from popular comics from TV, radio and the comedy club circuit – Jo Caulfield, Steve Bugeja, Sunil Patel and Tom Deacon.
Next, as seen on Taskmaster and Never Mind the Buzzcocks, John Kearns presents his brand-new stand-up show, Tilting At Windmills (Wednesday 25 March), described as a fragmented, digressing portrayal of a 38-year-old man’s life.
Geoff Norcott (Have I Got News For You, Would I Lie to You?) returns with sequel show, Basic Bloke 2 – There’s No Bloke Without Fire (Wednesday 1 April), examining bad parents, people who eat too much, men’s mental health, and more.
Leading political comedian, Matt Forde (The Royal Variety Performance, Spitting Image) brings to the city his biggest live tour to date, Defying Calamity (Thursday 9 April), which finds positivity in life despite all the evidence to the contrary.
Mark Simmons – ‘master of one-liners’, seen on Mock the Week and heard on podcast, Jokes with Mark Simmons – is back with the brand-new Jest to Impress (Tuesday 14 April), packed with his trademark off-the-cuff jokes based on random audience suggestions.
Carpet-fitter turned comedian Jack Skipper – with over 16 million likes on TikTok – performs his debut Edinburgh Comedy Award nominated stand-up show, Skint (Friday 17 April), about a working-class father struggling to navigate his way through life.
Lastly, the award-winning Seann Walsh, described as ‘the best observational comic of his generation’ (The Guardian), presents This is Torture (Saturday 18 April) – a brand-new show filled with high-energy exasperation.
For comic theatre fans, General Medical Emergency Ward 10 (Thursday 12 March) is a doctors-and-nurses cliché-ridden comedy spoof, which focuses on a doctor’s first day at a new hospital, a complicated budding love affair, a kidney, and a nosey boss.
While A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Tuesday 21 – Wednesday 22 April) is Shakespeare’s spellbinding comedy of young lovers and bumbling actors who find themselves mixed up in a world of mistaken identities and mischievous magic.
For children and families, Pete Firman is the UK’s top comic magician whose 4.5 million social media fans regularly enjoy his mind-boggling viral magic videos. His show, Tricks & Giggles (Thursday 2 April) blends sleight of hand with impossible feats.
Finally, looking ahead to the rest of the year, already on sale – comedians Gary Delaney (Friday 12 June), Tom Stade (Saturday 13 June), and Ruby Wax (Sunday 21 June); comic ventriloquist Paul Zerdin (Wednesday 9 September); as part of Winchester Comedy Festival – Scott Bennett (Wednesday 23 September), Michael Spicer (Thursday 24 September), and Flo & Joan (Friday 25 September); comedy ‘pensioner’ Barry from Watford (Sunday 27 September); and the critically-acclaimed Sh!t-faced Shakespeare perform Romeo and Juliet (Thursday 15 October). Also on sale, Harriet Kemsley (Wednesday 10 February 2027).
For more information, or to book tickets, visit: theatreroyalwinchester.co.uk or call 01962 840 440.
- In Common is not for profit. We rely on donations from readers to keep the site running. Could you help to support us for as little as 25p a week? Please help us to carry on offering independent grass roots media. Visit: https://www.patreon.com/incommonsoton