- January–February 2018
Dear Pen Pal,
Got my Olly Murs bobble-head doll stolen last week which was way past cool, but my mood took a turn for the better when I saw that ‘Footlights Presents: Pen Pals’ is coming to the ADC in Lent Term! Wanna come watch it with me? It’d be so great to finally meet. I can’t think of anything better than watching a bumper hour of sketches, skits and songs from five First Class comedians (you know, like on stamps!)
Haha - it’s the thrill of going through someone else’s mail without any of the risk! A sketch show about the letters that get lost in the post. I eagerly await your reply.
Love,
Your Pen Pal x
P.S. How was chess camp? Did you win?
- November 2017
On the bustling streets of Paris, a revolution is brewing. And so, apparently, is the beer.
Today the world is going to be turned upside down. Today is the day of the Feast of Fools. It is the biggest, brashest, most politically radical party in town. And we have a hunch that you’re going to enjoy it.
The rich will become poor and the poor will become rich. The left will become right and the right will become left. Good will become bad. Day will become night. There’ll be lonely bell ringers with silly names, there’ll be moving gargoyles and pantomime dames. There’ll be dancing goats and drunken clowns, frightened villains and forgotten crowns. There’ll be lights, music, dance, song. Revolution, power, protest...
Ding dong!
- October 2017
Footlights bring you the funniest songs, sketches, monologues and standup in an hour of non-stop, back-to-back fun-filled hilarity.
The material is always original and always varied. It can be soft and silly, rude and spiky, wordy and nerdy or a little surreal; whatever the style, it's always 'uproariously funny' (Varsity).
- August 2017
One of the best-reviewed acts of 2015 and 2016. Award-winning one-man cartoon. Wracked with hype, Goose present their most ambitious show yet. As seen on BBC Three and Comedy Central. 'Brilliant stuff' (Guardian). 'Excellently crafted' (Sunday Times). 'Irrepressibly funny... it's phenomenal' * (Fest). 'A frenetic, ambitious spectacle... superb' *** (Skinny). 'Crams more gags into a show than any other' (TheWeeReview.com). 'Bloody good... meticulously crafted' * (One4Review.co.uk). 'Precision-engineered chaos' (BroadwayBaby.com). 'Hilariously unique' (EdFestMag.com). 'Will split your sides and pull at your heart strings' (ThreeWeeks).
- June 2017
The Cambridge Footlights International Tour Show is the biggest show of the year. Join ‘the most renowned sketch troupe of them all’ (The Independent) as they embark on another exceptional world tour, performing to over twenty thousand people across two continents. This year's tour travels to London, Edinburgh, California, Las Vegas, Boston, Chicago, New York, Cambridge, and many more. Don’t miss your chance to see the latest on offer from the group that launched many of the greatest names in comedy, including Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson, Mel Giedroyc, John Cleese, Miriam Margolyes, Hugh Laurie, Mitchell and Webb, Richard Ayoade, Olivia Colman, John Oliver and Sue Perkins.
- May 2017
Winner of the Footlights' Harry Porter Prize 2017.
When a young girl is forced to write an essay on "How Did Stalin Rise To Power?", or fail sixth form, she decides to manipulate a boy in the year below into doing it for her. Does it all go to plan, with no disastrous consequences? Come find out!
The Harry Porter Prize is an annual new writing competition for a one-hour comic play set up in memory of the late Dr Harry Porter, Footlights' long term senior archivist. This year the ex-Footlight judge is none other than comedian and writer John Finnemore (Mitchell & Webb, John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme, Cabin Pressure).
- May 2017
The Lady Smoker is back! Join a stellar line-up of female and non-binary comedians for a night of side-splitting laughter.
- May 2017
Footlights bring you the best sketches, songs and stand-up in an hour of non-stop, back-to-back fun-filled hilarity. The material is always original and always varied. It can be soft and silly, rude and spikey, wordy and nerdy or a little surreal; whatever the style, it's always 'uproariously funny' (Varsity).
And this time, for the FIRST TIME EVER, all the comedians will be from Cambridge's BME community.
We have a very special guest headliner, Cambridge and Footlights alumnus AHIR SHAH. He began doing comedy occasionally at the age of fifteen, and over the course of the last decade his status on the circuit has skyrocketed from "curiosity" to "interloper". Shah's sharp, intellectual brand of stand-up features a blend of philosophical inquiry, political vigour, and sweet gags. Check him out here: http://ahirshah.com/
- May 2017
Some of Cambridge's brightest up-and-coming solo comedians try some new stuff in one of the city’s most intimate and unusually-shaped venues. And all tickets go to charity!
- March 2017
The world-famous Cambridge Footlights are back by popular demand with two nights of hilarious new comedy. And this time they’re joined by their friends, The Oxford Revue & The Bristol Revunions (12th) and The Durham Revue & The Leeds Tealights (19th). Come along for a showcase of original sketches and stand-up from some of the finest student comedians in the country.
Join ‘the most renowned sketch troupe of them all’ (The Independent) which launched many of the greatest names in comedy, including Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson, Mel Giedroyc, John Cleese, Miriam Margolyes Hugh Laurie, Mitchell and Webb, Richard Ayoade, Olivia Colman, John Oliver and David Baddiel.
- February 2017
Knock knock, who’s there? Doors. That’s who. Since the very dawn of time, doors have existed to provide easy access between areas that would otherwise be discrete. Many believe that doors predate the dinosaurs, and that the dinosaurs became extinct because they just couldn’t fathom doors. Nowadays, doors are an integral part of our existence, and we have learnt to work with them, rather than against them. That is why the Footlights Spring Revue will feature eleven special doors (as selected via a rigorous audition process) that the Footlights will walk in and out of at various points during the show.
Spring Revue is one of the biggest events in the Cambridge comedy calendar. And this year, the Footlights want to bring you the most exciting and audacious sketch show Cambridge has ever seen.
As the creative culmination of the 2016-17 Footlights Committee, expect a show bursting at the seams with wicked wit, unforgettable characters and even non-complimentary ice cream at the interval.
Don't miss your chance to see this brand new extravaganza from the group that launched many of the greatest names in comedy, including Peter Cook, Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Sandi Toksvig, David Mitchell, Robert Webb, Sue Perkins and Richard Ayoade.
Come on down and see what the Footlights have to offer!
It's going to be big.
- February 2017
The Lady Smoker is back, this time as a termly fixture at the ADC Theatre! Join a stellar line-up of female and non-binary comedians for a night of side-splitting laughter.
- January 2017
Open the oven door to the ADC and fill up on the aromatic comedy delights of our new sketch show, Bread.
- November 2016
Welcome to the sleepy alpine village of Alpenberg; there’s beer, snow, semi-constructed gold castles, and the Christmas tree market is in full swing.
But when a careless offhand comment by the local landlord gets his daughter into trouble, it sparks a chain of events that resurrects Alpenberg’s darkest secret.
Meet our heroine Frieda, our lumberjacking Dame, and mad King Bruno for a snow-capped, gold-plated, schnitzel-covered tale of revenge, greed and love.
Cambridge’s finest offering of comedians, actors, technicians and musical talents present this year’s CUADC/Footlights Pantomime 2016: Rumpelstiltskin.
Come down to the ADC this Christmas and join us for a bit of rumpy pumpy.
- August 2016
Annual showcase show at the Edinburgh Fringe
- August 2016
The last time Detective James Macaroni saw the evil drug baron Walnut Sanchez, it was at the centre of the earth.
Years later, in a town full of cops who don’t play by the rules, Macaroni’s obsessive respect for due process makes him the greatest maverick of all… Still haunted by his past, investigates a spate of missing persons - but as the witnesses pile up, it seems all is not as it seems. Or so it seems…
Like a psychic at a salsa class, Sanchez is always one step ahead. Slowly, Macaroni meanders to redemption, but not before meeting a whole host of offbeat characters: a couple of country club toffs; a mad old lady hellbent on wasting police time; a charity worker with the unfortunate voice of an evil genius; and many, many more. It’s all quite weird. But we think you’ll like it.
Previous praise:
“Puns that melt your face” - CTR
“Fresh, original, and brilliantly self-aware” - Tab
***** - BroadwayBaby, EdFringeReview, Varsity
- June 2016
The Cambridge Footlights International Tour Show is the biggest show of the year. Join ‘the most renowned sketch troupe of them all’ (The Independent) as they embark on another exceptional world tour, performing to over twenty thousand people across two continents. This year's tour travels to London, Edinburgh, California, Las Vegas, New York, the Cayman Islands, Cambridge, and many more. Don’t miss your chance to see the latest on offer from the group that launched many of the greatest names in comedy, including Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson, Mel, John Cleese, Hugh Laurie, Mitchell and Webb, Richard Ayoade, Sue, John Oliver and David Baddiel.
A new sketch show from a team that have collectively brought you Chocolate Moose: Footlights Spring Revue 2016, Panopticon, toucan, Have I Got to Mock the Buzzcocks for You: A Panel Show, Buttnik, pelican, Cirque De L'Extraordinaire, Beluga, Grizzly, Dystopia: The Musical, Bafflesmash Presents: Back in the Cellar, STIFF! (The Footlights Harry Porter Prize Winner 2014), Amygdala Wonderland, Telly Visions, Sunset Eternal, Bafflesmash Presents: Menagerie, Kenneth Watton's Bedtime Chat Show: Take Two, The Marlowe Showcase, The Double, Laughing Fitz, numerous Footlights smokers, and many more.
Previous praise for writers/performers:
'By far the best comedic performance I have seen at the Fringe this year' EdFringe Review
‘A glorious mix of surreal, intelligent and simply hilarious sketches’ The Tab
‘I cannot recommend the show highly enough’ TCS
'Highly original and truly hilarious' Varsity
'Has half the audience dancing and the rest laughing' TCS
- May 2016
“So his buddy whips a flail out, and starts swinging it round at me, like this is fucking Dungeons and Dragons or something.” - Judge Judy, superhero superstar.
Meet Judge Judy. No, not that one. Crime fighting, misleadingly-named vigilante Judge Judy. She’s been keeping Middle America safe since way back before Chickie McQuickie became the top supplier of frozen chicken breasts in the tristate area. Join her as she takes you through her greatest hits.
Winner of the Footlight’s Harry Porter Prize 2016.
- March 2016
Following the sell-out success of 2015, Cambridge Footlights are back by popular demand with two dates of hilarious new comedy!
Cambridge Footlights are the world-famous comedy troupe who first aired the talents of some of the foremost British comedians and actors of this century. Founded in 1880, this university drama society boasts an impressive alumni including Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Trevor Nunn and Peter Shaffer.
Join Footlights for two nights as they showcase original sketches, songs and stand-up from some of the country’s finest student comedians. With special guests from: The Oxford Revue, Bristol Revunions, Durham Revue, and Leeds Tealights.
- February 2016
Chocolate Moose is the Footlights Spring Revue 2016.
Come on down to the ADC Theatre to see the Footlights throw a series of little comedy stand-up-plays your way. There’ll be sketches, an interval, and more sketches. In the interval you can ask your friends what they think of the show, lament the subjective nature of comedy and buy an ice cream.
Chocolate Moose will be a comedy show like no otter. It promises to be at 7.45pm on Tues 23 – Sat 27 February, with matinees on Thursday 25th and Saturday 27th at 2.30pm. Expect sketches! The Footlights are an internationally renowned sketch troop whose alumni include: Mel, Stephen Fly, Huge Laurie, Prince Charles (of Wales), Hugh Latimer (Toymaker), Norman Hartnell (Dressmaker to the Queen Mother), Thurston Dart (Prominent Musicologist), Jonathan Baker (Eton Mathematics Teacher) Brian Barder (British Diplomat), John Cleese and Sue.
- February 2016
‘Xylophone’ is a brand new sketch show in alphabetical order.
A) Nobody knows why our alphabet is arranged in the way it is. It is a question that has baffled archaeologists, linguists, and scientists alike. And yet that odd order of disconnected squiggles has been with us for centuries. Let us take you now on an epic journey through its twenty-six letters. In a world where antelopes have to come before zebras and happiness has to come before profit, anything is possible.
B) From the team that brought you the sell-out show ‘Switch’ comes an hour of fast-paced sketch comedy. It's finally time to ABC at the ADC.
C) "guarantees screams of laughter" ★★★★★ – Varsity
- November 2015
In medieval times, life was very different to now. There were huge divides between rich people and poor people.
There were also snazzy musical numbers, talking trees and a live audience watching the every move of a medium-sized town in the East Midlands. Welcome to Nottingham!
Here, the Sheriff’s long-term economic plan is in full swing, and everything is rosy; the caviar flows like water and the water flows if you pay your taxes. Yet all this is about to change. When Maid Marian has a chance encounter with Robin Hood, she sets in motion a tree-topping tale of love, lies and Marxist liberation that promises to blow the glass ceiling, and your minds.
Will the Sheriff’s iron rule be broken? Will Marian find what she is looking for? Will Scarlet is also there. Join us for this year’s glitziest, jazziest, sparkliest, socialist-est show of all, starring the cream of Cambridge’s comedy and musical worlds in the all-singing, all-dancing, CUADC/Footlights Pantomime: Robin Hood!
- October 2015
Footlights bring you the funniest songs, sketches, monologues and standup in an hour of non-stop, back-to-back fun-filled hilarity. The material is always original and always varied. It can be soft and silly; rude and spikey; wordy and nerdy or a little surreal - whatever the style, it's always 'uproariously funny' (Varsity).
- June 2015
The Footlights International Tour Show is the biggest show of the year. Join ‘the most renowned sketch troupe of them all’ (The Independent) as they embark on another exceptional world tour, performing to over twenty thousand people across two continents. This year expanding the tour to include New Orleans, Las Vegas, Canada and the Cayman Islands, alongside its usual trips to Edinburgh, both coasts of the USA, London, and Cambridge. Don’t miss your chance to see the latest on offer from the group that launched many of the greatest names in comedy, including Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, David Mitchell, Richard Ayoade, John Oliver and Simon Bird.
www.footlightsontour.co.uk
- April 2015
The Cambridge Footlights are joined (for two delicious nights before term starts) by the Oxford and Durham Revues for a night of sketches and stand-up at the Arts Theatre. If you want to see some unhealthy-looking comedians be funny on a stage frequently used by serious people like Rupert Everett and Dame Helen Mirren then this is your grand opportunity.
- March 2015
The Footlights present Warp Factor by Oliver Taylor as the winner of this year's Harry Porter Prize (set up in 2003 in honour of the late Dr Harry Porter, Footlights' long-term Senior Archivist).
Warp Factor is a farcical sci-fi adventure that provides a conclusive explanation of the nature of the universe and god. Featuring a man with 500 personalities downloaded into his mind, a commander so incompetent that he extends his cryogenic hyper-sleep 3 weeks by pressing “snooze”, and a Feminid from the planet Vulvox where everyone chooses their gender (and where everyone is hence female) all taking part in the most important mission in human history, Warp Factor is the most thrilling interstellar action comedy on this plane of dimensional existence.
The show was recorded, and can be viewed at this URL: https://youtu.be/It0kGJCRWBM
- March 2015
Cambridge Footlights are getting together with their Friends, the Leeds Tealights and the Bristol Revunions. A bit like a Smoker, there might be some songs, some sketches, some stand-up. Not like a Smoker, there will be people you won’t see in Cambridge any other time this year.
For one night only, they’re doing a show together in the spirit of collaboration and mutual congratulation. Maybe tinged with the spirit of competition.
This show won’t come again. Not only is all the material original, but the getting together will only come round once a year. The Tealights might have a new committee by then! The Revunions might have been disbanded following a court order!
Whatever the coming year has in store for the Footlights and their Friends, you won’t see a show like this any old night, so book some tickets early and bring your Friends.
- February 2015
The Footlights Spring Revue 2015 will see an old-school descent into the mad, mad world of variety shows and vaudeville loons for five nights only (and a couple of mid-afternoon matinees). If you like brass bands in the springtime, or ragbag finales, get yourself down to the ADC for all that and much, much more. The Spring Revue is set to be as raucous and silly as ever as the Footlights committee bring you a show that is bursting at the hatches.
- February 2015
In 2004, the nation was left aghast when big-cheese sketch troupe S.C.O.F.F.! announced they were splitting up. There were protests, outrage, crying in the streets – and for many fans, the possibility of ever laughing again seemed a distant dream.
Yet, dreams do sometimes come true. After ten rocky years apart, the group are back and bigger than ever. For four nights only, S.C.O.F.F.! will be hitting the ADC stage, before setting off around the country to tickle our funny bones once more. Don’t miss out on this red-hot ticket to see your favourite S.C.O.F.F.! sketches performed, live, by the old gang you know and love.*
Due to filming commitments, Fiona will not be joining the troupe for the Comeback Tour. S.C.O.F.F.! apologises to fans.
- November 2014
Emperor Wilf loves clothes. No, he REALLY loves clothes. But why? Maybe it’s because he wants to impress his newly-inherited kingdom. Or perhaps it’s to do with the town newspaper, the Looking Glass, run by the shady reindeer-human Rudolph Murder, who has been spreading snide rumours about the Emperor. Perhaps he just has a passion for fashion. Whatever the reason, the Yuletide Parade is fast approaching, and unless he finds the perfect outfit, something pretty bad is going to happen. Something really bad. We know what it is - we’re just being coy. So thank goodness he’s spotted an advert in the paper for a new, sparkly, confidence-boosting suit that’s bound to be the talk of the town… Come on down to the ADC this Christmas to catch a glimpse of Wilf’s... tribulations.
Featuring a brand-spanking new score, bare jokes, the cream of Cambridge acting talent, and written by 3 members of the Footlights, this year’s CUADC/Footlights Pantomime is seam-ingly flawless - don’t get your knickers in a twist, book your tickets now!
- October 2014
Footlights bring you the funniest songs, sketches, monologues and standup in an hour of non-stop, back-to-back fun-filled hilarity.
The material is always original and always varied. It can be soft and silly; rude and spikey; wordy and nerdy or a little surreal - whatever the style, it's always 'uproariously funny' (Varsity).
- August 2014
The Cambridge Footlights bring you a daily hour of free stand-up comedy. Featuring a rolling line-up of Cambridge's top comedians and friends, this is student stand-up at its best. The Cambridge Footlights are a world-renowned comedy troupe, whose alumni include: Richard Ayoade, David Mitchell, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry and the better half of The Inbetweeners.
- June 2014
- May 2014
''It’s funny the things you’ll do when you’re in love. Things that you thought were bad or cruel or unchristian. Well they all become right, just, in the face of love. Don’t they Frank?''
A modern melodrama in a graveyard at night. Frank and Charlie are burying a body. When the night is through they can collect their money and all will be well. As the evening spirals out of control the pair find themselves on a landfill site with a corpse to get rid of.
If there is morality, is it worth more than money?
''A bold and compelling story.'' - Tom Basden
Footlights present the winner of this year's Harry Porter Prize (set up in 2003 in honour of the late Dr Harry Porter, Footlights' long-term Senior Archivist) for a one-hour comic play.
- March 2014
From the writers of 'Dressing Down', 'The Princess and the Pea', 'Lost Property' and 'Esio Trot' comes this year’s Footlights Spring Revue, a chronological odyssey through the history of the universe - from the Big Bang to the invention of the iPhone and everything in between. Why not take a whistle-stop tour through the primordial soup, up the Jurassic coast, down the Fall of the Roman Empire, into the House of the Tudors, and back to the Future in time for tea? And all in 90 minutes.
Brace yourself. This is as big as it gets.
- February 2014
Dűmpf is a sketch show combining fast-paced sketches with musical comedy.
Archie and Adrian want to talk about some issues. Unfortunately the only way they can get anyone to listen is to write a comedy show, so that’s what they’ve done. The product, Dümpf, is a whirlwind of thoughts, desires, sketches and songs. But also issues.
In a whirlwind of thoughts, desires, sketches and songs we invite you venture into the deranged world of Dűmpf.
Previous praise for the writers includes:
‘Brilliantly original and often daring’ - The Cambridge Student
‘Hilarious’ - The Tab
‘A delightful taste of musical comedy’ - Varsity
