What a way to end off our 2026 live shows this was! Modest turnout, but such a cracking line-up and atmosphere all round, not least with the incredibly delightful Charlotte Cropper taking on guest hosting duties for the evening.
Stand-up has been giving me far more anxiety than enjoyment lately, so I knew I needed to take some time off, and I knew when I was that Charlotte was a perfect choice to take that place for a show. Over the past 7 years she has cemented herself as a stalwart of the Manchester comedy circuit, regularly performing across the region, running her own twice award-winning Slumber Party Comedy Club, and just generally being one of the most charming and lovely stage presences in comedy I’ve ever seen.
It was a nice full circle moment for me, first meeting Charlotte whilst a student at Salford, reaching out to interview us for one of her research projects many years ago, getting to hand over the metaphorical keys to the club for the night and see just how damn amazingly she’s developed her work (from an already pretty high baseline) over the years. She has grown to be one of the most confident and endearing performers working today.
Charlotte just oozes charm and friendliness on stage (and indeed off, but that’s less relevant). She’s one of those comedians that no matter how bad a mood you might be in, or whatever your typical tastes in comedy are, I struggle to believe after seeing her work live on stage that you wouldn’t just feel immediately better. Straddling a line between your favourite primary school teacher and your gen-z bestie vibes wise, few comics are as welcoming and lovely whilst also demonstrating an incredibly sharp wit and understanding of her own comedy persona, implementing that to unquestionably hilarious and feel-good effect.
Charlotte holds her own against some of the biggest names in the industry, and I feel like she’s only getting better and better every time I see her – check out her own club if you get a chance here, or just generally keep an eye out for her at a club near you, you won’t regret it.
Opening the show we had Dom Hutchins, a comic I saw for the first time at XS Malarkey some years ago and knew would be an amazing fit for Blizzard. Political activist comedian with cerebral palsy sounds like a description the worst people you know might apply to the kinds of comedians we book as a kind of slur, but the joke’s on them because he absolutely fucking killed it and you’re missing out for being such a loser thinking that’s a bad thing.
Dom is an incredibly engaging storyteller on stage, with a lived experience he mines extensively for his material, whilst applying incredible comic skill punching up those anecdotes with gags to levels that would make several one-liner comedians jealous. I particularly enjoyed his anecdote from the Corbyn years about how he won a Parish council seat as a paper candidate without actually campaigning. Made me nostalgic for a time when we had a labour party mind, but either way that was a perfect set for our room.
Next we had Bella Cagnoli, an act who comes out strong right out of the gate, one of those acts you can tell is having a whale of a time with every word she utters, and holding a crowd in the palm of her hand. Her delivery is so deliberately crafted, and she has such a colourful way with words making for one of those most quotable stand-up sets I’ve ever heard.
Bella communicates ideas and jokes with intensely visual language and such a snappy delivery, like some of the best poetry if the best poetry contained the phrase “He looks like he eats pussy with a napkin on.” Which it does, obviously. Bella’s an absolute pro performer who revels in every minute of it, and nothing reignites my love for comedy more than acts like Bella absolutely killing it.
Next we had Neil Thomas, who’s really good for a male comedian. No genuinely, obvious mostly joking bias aside, I remember watching Neil’s application video for the first time, and thinking “Damn he is perfect for Blizzard” – which is genuinely not a thought I have often from applications from cis men. He’s such a good balance of intensely niche nerdy knowledge, quick witted and full of whimsy, as well as managing to avoid the worst pitfall of male comedians, by not having the absolute worst opinions known to science.
Neil is boatloads of fun on stage, a really engaging performer, and one of the most memorable routines of the night about an incredibly niche Tom Jones cut from the early 2000s, which I cannot imagine any other comedian doing. Neil is an absolute asset to the circuit. I implore more comedians to aspire to be more like him.
And closing the show we had David Eagle – a comic I’ve been aware of for a few years now and genuinely thought would be out of our league until he actually approached us for a gig about a year ago. That’s one of the loveliest things about running this gig, the rare but lovely occurrence of acts I look up to seeking us out because they want to perform with us instead of me going out and begging them. No validation quite like it ngl.
Anyway David is stupendously good. One of the quickest wits, with an absurdly high gag rate, and a dynamic and playful performer, making for one of the most pure fun headline sets we’ve ever seen at Blizzard. He’s also a great listener, which might be a weird compliment for a comedian, but for a headliner especially the references and callbacks he made to previous acts really elevate the headline set to close off the night. It’s an underrated trait in a headliner so I want to celebrate it.
David is a one-man entertainment juggernaut, with a stand-out moment about Cockney gospel music that would’ve left Bill Bailey in hysterics. He’s one of those comedians that once you’ve seen him feels like he’s always been a part of your experience of live comedy – if you wanted to show stand-up comedy to someone who had never heard of it before, there are few acts who I think I would suggest before David. He brings a unique lived experience and perspective to the form, as an insanely competent musical and comedic performer, a fantastic storyteller with plenty of material to draw from, and endless amounts of stage charm to hook even the most stubborn of audiences (which thankfully, ours isn’t).
I can’t think of any better act to round off this year of live shows for us, and I’m so grateful to him for giving our little club the time of day!
That’s us for 2026. Well mostly, we’ve got a livestream coming up which we’ll be announcing shortly, so watch this space, sign up to our mailing list, join the discord, follow us on socials all via our LinkTree. And you can catch Charlotte, Dom and David’s set over on our Twitch channel up until 8th November 2026. See you soon ❤
