Comedy Shows & Podcast Projects 2015-2024

Haunted 2019 - Multi-comedy award finalist Jane Postlethwaite ('Made in Cumbria' and 'Last Night at the Circus') has teamed up with fellow Cumbrian comedian Steph Bradshaw to invite you to a new deliciously dark comedy sketch show.

Jane and Steph have co-hosted the Miraculous Cumbria comedy podcast since June 2018 and have been heard on BBC Radio Cumbria when they co-hosted the Friday Showcase show.

They’re now excited to be bringing their wonderfully dark, daft, surreal humour to the Brighton Fringe with this new show. The show is set in a haunted theatre with themes of the paranormal, feminism, space travel, magic, stand up comedy and the really mundane. Expect to leave less dead inside.

Last Night at the Circus 2018

The show touched on raw themes of mental health, suicide and self help, Last Night at the Circus is a gut wrenching yet hilarious one woman multimedia show exploring what it means to sabotage your own success set in a dystopian yet breathtaking Circus landscape.

The show had it's world preview in May at Brighton Fringe 2018 with three shows at Otherplace Productions in The Warren's Theatre Box.   It involved beautiful projections, live recordings, animation and other visual props to drive the narrative and expression of the themes.

The main aim was to spark conversations about mental health long after people have seen the show. The local Brighton suicide charity Grassroots Suicide Prevention was promoted at the end of the show to give support and encourage awareness.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️ Review - Stemme Magazine 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review - "Honest & Funny" from Reviews Hub

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review - "Time + Tragedy = Comedy" from Latest Brighton 

Poster was in the Final top 10 for the Gemini Print Award 2018.

Photography Andy Hollingworth and poster artwork by OKSE 2018.

The House 2017 - Brighton & Edinburgh Fringe

"You're on a day out to Derwent Island House on Derwent Water in Cumbria. You got there by Kayak. You're a birdwatcher, ghosthunter or naturist. Taken into the bosom of Nanna 'Edifth' Lavender (literally). You get offered a cup of special tea before being told that there's been a murder in the house. It's the lady of the house. Why? We don't know. Only you can meet the other occupants of the house and follow the clues. Marion Ette is a little girl in the toyroom who is recording her high ranking true crime podcast and collecting evidence. Kirsty Bird is running a disfunctional falconry cafe but is loosing her marbles and her falcons who are now addicted to sugar. Gerta Grunhaus is testing the DNA of everyone and reconnecting with her test tube clones. Then Joy Hope the children's author is plotting to secure herself on the island so she never has to deal with children ever again. Can you work out what is going on before it's too late?"

After a sell out run at Lamb Comedy at the Nowhere Man cafe for the Brighton Fringe in May 2017, The House was with Sweet Venues for the Edinburgh Fringe 2017. The House is a multimedia, audience interactive, character comedy show.

Audience Reviews from Edinburgh Fringe 2017

“Hilarious character comedy with a dark edge. Absolutely loved it. Still laughing.

— Ruth Ainsworth - Edinburgh Fringe 2017 

“A clever, witty show that produced many a belly laugh. Nicely judged humour, shaken with a dark twist, well portrayed characters with extra tidbits for the observant! Well worth checking out.

— Stewert Wallace - Edinburgh Fringe 2017 

“Narrowly missing a ‘Made In Cumbria’ that was sold-out in this same venue last year, we made sure not to do that on this. Met with mordant, murky, quirky, gothic humour from the same Cumbrian maid, this time playing every cranky character in a Murder Mystery committed within an island mansion marooned in the middle of Derwentwater (an official Brownie & Guides War Cemetery.....) the experience was by turns scary then hilarious, then just plain scary. Production values and video backdrops were satisfyingly creaky but equally-spooky, the acting so bad it became really, really good.
Like a cuddle from ‘Nana’, rapidly-escalating levels of audience-involvement were HMRC-style ‘optional’, and soon quite enough to frighten at least one younger audience member into running away, but integral to the whole surreal experience. Not to be missed for the world.

— Clive Ashman - Edinburgh Fringe 2017 

“Delightfully dark character comedy that had me grinning gleefully through a 60-minute tour of The House.

An experience that will live long in the memory. Take the opportunity to see Jane in this intimate venue before her inevitable graduation to bigger things. ***** — Brandon Brentford - Edinburgh Fringe 2017 

“The discovery of the festival so far for me. Interactive character comedy that is clever, distinctive and very very funny. A really polished, professional show that is surely headed for bigger things - catch her at this great small venue while you can! **** - Edinburgh Local - Edinburgh Fringe 2017 

“Fantastic use of characters and props from a solo artist! Particularly loved the character Greta (hilarious!) and the audience participation made it really personal. — Gemma Carlisle - Edinburgh Fringe 2017 

“Dark humour with Jane playing a multitude of characters in a cosy atmosphere. Came out having thoroughly enjoyed it. — Martin Bailey - Edinburgh Fringe 2017 

“Having seen Jane Postlethwaite’s previous show, Made in Cumbria at last year’s Fringe, I was looking forward to seeing which new grotesques she had bought with her to The House. After a short kayaking ride, the audience find themselves at Cumbria Derwent House, a Brownie Burial Ground,where the ghosts don’t want to scare you or hurt you, they only want to do good deeds. The stand out character was Joy Hope, a children’s author, tackling the gap in the market of murder and crime stories for the under 5’s. Although there is nothing deep here (people can see Ibsen or Strindberg at other times) this is a fun way to spend an hour, where the audience are intrinsic to the development of the plot, and we get to spend some time in the company of people we normally wouldn’t. — Ben Macnair - Edinburgh Fringe 201

Bad Book Project 2015-2018 - The comedy night is currently on a hiatus.

The Bad Book Project was a hilarious monthly comedy night in Brighton which ran for 3 years. We had extremely funny people reading from really bad books. Our readers were comedians, artists, poets, writers and anyone who has a bad book. The night ran at two venues at The Blue Man and Village in Brighton.

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Thank you to everyone who made Bad Book Project so much fun and supported through three great years!