Live Comedy Day 2026 at The Jesters Comedy Club, Bath

On April Fools Day, The Jesters Comedy Club hosted a 12-hour long comedy marathon: at least one person performing at all times, no breaks or intervals, over 30 comedians (including one John Bishop) gracing the stage throughout the day between 11am and 11pm. Here’s what you may have missed.

11am, Coffee & Crowdwork: Sam Hawkins, Ellis Lowe, and Holly Leggett got the show off to a tremendous start by getting to know the audience, a lot of which would be there all day. The format just worked; the chemistry between the acts was at one point described by an act as ‘an ideal blunt rotation, but I wouldn’t listen seriously if they start talking about science’, the crowdwork was a natural forum led by the comedians which encouraged laughter, and coffees were had - MANY coffees were had in fact (keep an eye out for circa 6:30 when all the caffeine wears off). The conversation floated seamlessly between getting to know acts on stage, acts coming up through the day, and audience members too - at one point, quite lengthily discussing how Tom Hutchinson had gotten injured playing comedians six-a-side football one Sunday. Hawkins, Lowe and Leggett perfectly set the tone for what the day would be: hilariously controlled chaos.

12pm, Alasdair Wallace: Wallace did his hour-long solo show, and excellently. It was a home run; every punchline landing, unafraid and unashamedly tackling topics not often discussed at midday, and also a very talented masterclass on birds with encouragement to the crowd to call out their favourites so he could say what it says about them (with great accuracy and a vast breadth of avian knowledge). He bantered at the top of the show that the hour would be a bit different to how he is used to performing it, starting at noon is not his usual performing time and joked how he may be slightly distracted due to still recovering from a fellow comedian’s stag-do from earlier in the week (more on that later) - to be sat in the audience watching him perform was a pure delight.

1pm, Incremental Animal Line Draw: The act scheduled to do a half-hour show was sadly unavailable on the day, and so a Taskmaster task ensued in their place. Sam Hawkins and Ollie Young made up Team Bath, Alfred Taylor and Eliza Fraser made up Team Bristol. Each team elected one drawer and one guesser. The drawers were given a piece of paper with an animal on it, and had three straight lines at a time to convey what the animal was. Three rounds were planned, but unfortunately geometric animals are harder to guess than anticipated, and so only two rounds ensued. It ended in a one-all tie though, which felt quite nice that everyone was a winner that day. Congratulations again to Taylor’s isometric bumblebee, and a baffling well done to Young’s ‘tube on a tripod’ raccoon.

1:30pm, Holly Leggett: Leggett had done her half-hour work in progress preview the night before to much success at the club, and her show landed just as well the day after. Talking of being a vegan, of her partner, of her family, and layering jokes throughout - her show was thoroughly entertaining and engaging, having an edge to it without ever alienating the crowd. Leggett can regularly be found hosting Thursday shows and performing throughout the week at The Jesters.

2pm, Greg Curzon: Curzon brought a half hour of whimsy to the club, discussing thoughts he’d recently had, gorillas, and ‘hellbags’. Curzon is one to embrace his silly side and he does it exceptionally well, and did so even more phenomenally when considering it was his stag do earlier in the week (congratulations again, Greg!). He is always fantastic to see perform, and it’s a testament to his talent that he could get eruptions of laughter so large as the ones he earned that early in the day.

2:30pm, Ollie Young: Young presented a variation of his upcoming show entitled ‘Fair and Square’, performing highlights as a teaser ahead of his full hour further down the line. In addition to this, he informed the audience of his warm-up writing exercise where he gets a random word generator and writes a short story based on what he’s given. Young then shared with the crowd the one he had that morning - a Christmas tale called ‘A Badger, A Rabbit, and A Squirrel With A Heart’. Young’s work was ingenious, and a thrill to witness. Young also hosts our Wednesday Open Mic shows at The Jesters, in addition to performing here often in the week.

3pm, Tom Hutchinson: So very much happens in a Tom Hutchinson stand-up set; him having the hour to bounce back and forth between tangents with the time to see everything to its natural end of thought meant he was in his element. Hutchinson discussed having ADHD and Autism at the top of his set, and proved them both to his advantage through his show. He further discussed his football injury, being a musician, and how he had a plethora of topics to talk about on his hand and had not gotten through anywhere near as many as he thought he might have because he and the crowd were having too much fun seeing Hutchinson discuss other topics instead.

4pm, Keane Tugwell: Tugwell’s debut half-hour, entitled ‘Mr Keane’s Holiday’ was an alternative-comedy extravaganza. Due to tattooed forearms, they were unable to write their lengthier set on their hand, and so set the tone of their show by referring throughout to ‘the Scroll of the Northern Wind’, lighting change and sound cue included. At one point, the comedian incorporated a bridge to their set, as one would a song, and walked out the venue as the music played, only to reappear at the back of the room seconds later and ask ‘where’ve they gone?’. Tugwell took over the space and truly made it their own, and brought the audience along for the wild ride that it was. Tugwell hosts local Wednesday gig ‘Big Squash Comedy’ at The Saracens, before heading to The Jesters to perform at our own Open Mic show at The Jesters weekly, and can frequently be seen during the week at our other shows also.

4:30pm, Alfred Taylor: Taylor’s new year’s resolution was to start making a few notes every day in a journal about ideas and concepts he thought could develop into something funny and performable; for half an hour, Taylor went around the room and got the crowd to call out dates and performed whatever was in the book that day. There were no plants in the crowd calling out certain days and no pre-planning particular dates, which made Taylor’s writing talent really stand out when everyone had a turn naming a day and Taylor consistently getting belly laughs from what he’d written and begun to craft - even incorporating callbacks within the half hour and piecing together a somehow coherent journey through an abstract telling of events. A pleasure to watch, the crowd was captivated.

5pm, Sam Hawkins: The resident king of crowdwork took to his stage and conversed with the audience, peppering in his own material throughout. Hawkins made the stage his own, and was earnest in his thanking everyone who dropped in for any length of time that day, and could pivot perfectly into a cheeky light-hearted jest and a quick quip about anything and everything. Hawkins proved in his half hour show that he can hold his own in a solo format just as well as he can with others in Coffee and Crowdwork, the Taskmaster task, and the upcoming Set-Up Podcast. It is worth noting also that none of this would have been even remotely possible without Hawkins, his encouragement to grassroots local comedy, and his setting up the club near singlehandedly. Hawkins can be regularly found hosting weekend shows and performing throughout the week at The Jesters.

5:30pm, The Set-Up Podcast: After an interview with BBC Radio Somerset live on stage (!!!), Ollie Young joined Sam Hawkins on stage, and gave the premise for the section - they’d invite a fellow comedian onto the stage, and get a random topic from the audience, and after a discussion on comedic directions and sub topics and puns and the like in front of the audience, could the act go away after the podcast was over and have a good amount of working material ready for The Open Mic later? First up was Holly Leggett, and her subject was decided by Tom Hutchinson after thinking more about Alasdair Wallace’s bird material earlier, and what his favourite bird was - the topic was penguins. The other comedian invited onto the stage is local comic Sam Saffron, and was given the topic Jane Austen by a co-worker of his. Young and Hawkins were great pillars to bounce off and very encouraging to work with, the whole hour felt warm and a real peek behind the curtain at the comedian’s process.

6:30pm, Harvey Juggling: With the coffee starting to wear off on the now calmer comedians who had been in the club all day, Harvey was a welcome barrel of energy and joy to drive vim into the crowd as a wake-up after the relaxed vibe of the podcast. More than a juggler, Harvey has a background in street performing and so set himself apart immediately by opting not to use a microphone and instead project his voice across the room. He further set himself apart by juggling fruits and vegetables, eating whichever ones were called out by the audience, then juggling knives, and juggling knives and an onion and taking bites from the onion mid-juggle. To finish he somehow fit his entire body through a stringless tennis racquet which involved dislocating and then relocating his shoulder. Harvey is a magnificent performer, and balances talent and humour perfectly without ever needing to sacrifice one for the other.

7pm, Burt Williamson: At the 8-hour mark (as those that had been stuck indoors all day snuck off to the green room with a takeaway), Williamson took the stage by storm with an hour of masterfully crafted material. Williamson played the room impeccably, and was entirely unphased by the crowd picking up ahead of the Open Mic, making sure to captivate a welcoming atmosphere for newcomers while not losing any of the current audience. Williamson is a gifted stand-up comedian and his hour was a sheer pleasure to watch.

8pm, The Open Mic: Over 20 acts signed up throughout the day to do a 5-minute set in support of Live Comedy Day, and the next three hours were a celebration of grassroots local comedy, hosted (as usual) by Ollie Young. All acts who had done shows earlier in the day and were still at the club went on and did a set, in addition to those who have started stand-up in the past year having never done it before and now are regulars, such as Harrison Rolls and Henry Williams. Tom Hutchinson and Sam Hawkins based their material in their amazing crowdwork, Greg Curzon did highlights from his show which had the crowd in hysterics, Keane Tugwell read passages from their retelling of the Harry Potter franchise called ‘John Magic and the F*cking Wizard’, Alfred Taylor got new audience members to call out new days for journal material and sprinkled in some established material to end on, Harvey opted not to juggle but rather do the tennis racquet piece again, and Holly Leggett dedicated half of her stagetime to her newly written material about penguins - with brilliant success! Geoff Rowe, a producer of Live Comedy Day and consultant for the Live Comedy Association, also came down to watch and show his support for the club, for which we are very grateful. The vibes were electric, and the audience had a whale of a time. 

10:45pm, John Bishop: To round off the night, the most unexpected sign-up of the Open Mic hit the stage - the actual John Bishop, from off the telly. He was at Komedia Bath doing their Live Comedy Day celebration fundraiser show with Ignacio Lopez, Dani Johns, and Jarred Christmas, and they wanted to swing by to see both the club as well as the carnage of a 12-hour show. Lopez, an ambassador for Live Comedy Day, went on before him and did a phenomenal 5-minute set, and then Bishop graced the club with his ethereal presence, as evidenced when all of the acts who had been so professional throughout the day became giggling bundles of nerves behind the curtain. Bishop opened with the line ‘Yeah, I can’t believe I’m here either’ - as one would expect, he brought the house down for the rest of his stage time, and we are hugely grateful to him for coming down, and Komedia for bringing him to Bath in the first place.

11pm, Carriages: As the clock struck eleven, delirium had fully set in due to either oxygen deprivation, cabin fever, or (sacrilegiously) maybe one too many jokes. After the club had cleared out, a handful of still standing comedians finally left the club - it was beaming with sun as they went in, and was now only illuminated by streetlamps. Fresh air had never been more appreciated by comics. One celebratory drink was had before everyone looked across the pub at each other, sleep on the mind, and collectively parted ways knowing we’d be back at the club again together tomorrow for another unpredictable and astounding night of comedy.