ComedySportz Virtual World Championship!

We were saddened when, due to the ongoing pandemic, two of our biggest annual events - CSz World Championship and The Edinburgh Festival Fringe - were cancelled. Luckily the show will go online with the ComedySportz Virtual World Championship!

Starting TODAY, the Virtual World Championship  sees teams from around the world go for gold with quick-witted gags and games. Sadly the CSz Houston Championship was unable to go ahead this year but we're glad that by going online more of our fans in the UK can take part in the fun - if they don't mind staying up late that is!

The World Championship is always a big event with teams coming together for a week of workshops and shows. We hope you can join us for what promises to be a very funny week of online entertainment!

Watch ComedySportz World Championship Online

This year's ComedySportz Virtual World Championship sees Manchester take on Jersey Shore. It's guaranteed to be a really fun hour of all action, all improvised competitive comedy for all ages you won't want to miss! The match is scheduled for Saturday 1st August at 3pm BST (10am EDT/7am PDT). You can watch the match here - where you can also set a reminder and subscribe to our youtube channel to never miss a show.

You can also find some of our previous World Championship matches on our videos page.

Whilst many of the virtual matches will be happening during the middle of the night UK time, you can find a full line-up of virtual championship shows here for any nite-owls needing a laugh.

World Championship Merchandise

Support live comedy

We also have a new T-Shirt campaign! We always take a limited run T-Shirt to sell at CSz World Championship and this year is no different. Money from these shirts helps to fund future ComedySportz shows and events. There are also UK and US based vendors for the T-Shirts to help cut postage costs.

You can still get our ComedySportz mugs... FOR HOT DRINKS ONLY! Proper use of mugs has been a hot topic in the audience chat on our online shows. These mugs are a great way to support our players whilst keeping your warm beverages in an appropriate receptacle. Get yours by making a donation of £15 or above. For full details on how you can support our players and bag yourself some swag visit our donations page today.

Check back next week to learn more about our Online Free Fringe Festival shows and don't forget to sign up to our mailing list for monthly updates on workshops and shows.

ComedySportz World Championships 2019

We had a fantastic time at the ComedySportz World Championship this year! Every year ComedySportz teams from around the World descend on a city for a week of shows and workshops. We're very proud to say that for the first time ComedySportz Manchester were chosen to play in the Championship final against host city Philadelphia!

Photo by Brainne Edge

We didn't win but we were absolutely honoured to be nominated by our peers to play in this prestigious show to such a fantastic crowd in the city of brotherly love!

ComedySportz Manchester players also visited ComedySportz teams across the US; Maine, Buffalo, Richmond, New York  and Las Vegas.

This was also a very emotional year as ComedySportz Milwaukee, the team where it all began, celebrated their 35th year and we were honoured to be joined by ComedySportz founder Dick Chudnow.

Every Championship is an opportunity to reinvigorate and remember the four core values of ComedySportz that we bring to everything we do; Collaboration, Inspiration, Gratitude and Fun.
You can find more images from our time at Championship on our social media or search the hashtag #CSzWC2019.

Photo by Katherine Raines

Championship is, above all, an opportunity for ComedySportz players to come together, develop new games and share skills that we can then bring back to our teams and workshops. So when you take a workshop with us you know we are drawing not only from our 18 years of experience but the skills and knowledge of 30 other ComedySportz teams across the globe! You can find out more about all of the ComedySportz teams across the globe by visiting our worldwide page.
We had a fantastic time at Championship but there's no time to rest as we're off to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival! We hope to see you at a show soon...
All upcoming shows
All upcoming workshops

ComedySportz Summer Update and The Year Ahead!

Well, as the dust settles over another busy summer for ComedySportz, we wanted to do a quick round up of our summer and all the shows, workshops and events we've got coming up for the rest of the year!

JUNE

Way back in June - it feels like a long time ago to us anyway - a small team of our players took part in the ComedySportz World Championship in Los Angeles. Manchester's all female team defeated ComedySportz Houston in a hotly contested match of wits and players also reffed the matches between Sacramento, LA, Cincinatti and Austin! Every year the World Championship renews our commitment to the core values of ComedySportz Worldwide: Collaboration, Inspiration, Gratitude and Fun.

Prior to the shows in LA, two of our players drove across the US to play with ComedySportz Boston (only 3 hours off the plane), Richmond, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Quad Cities and St. Louis. It was an epic road trip and they loved getting to play with such dynamic and brilliantly funny people.

Didn't know ComedySportz was part of a worldwide family of shows? There are over 25 ComedySportz teams across the world, with more set to join the CSz family in the coming year - hello ComedySportz Las Vegas!

The CSz Worldwide network gives us access to some of the best Improv skills and training which we channel into our own workshops and shows.

ComedySportz Manchester World Championship

JULY

In July, CSzUK produced the play Auntie & Me for the Greater Manchester Fringe. This deliciously dark comedy was well-received by audiences and was an absolute delight to once again bring to the stage.

We were also delighted to have players from ComedySportz join 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?' legend Tony Slattery for his new show Crimes Against Improv. It was a wild and unpredictable night and it was an absolute honour to play with him.

Tony Slattery

AUGUST

August saw ComedySportz Manchester return to the Edinburgh Fringe for the 11th year, performing two shows a day to fantastic crowds. We loved our time so much that we went back up at the end of the month with ComedySportz 4 Tots!

We've posted plenty about that recently but just want to say a big, heart-felt thank you to all of our audiences for your suggestions and laughter, to all of the staff at both of our venues Fireside and The Three Sisters, and Alex and the team at The Free Edinburgh Fringe Festival. We can't wait to see you all again in 2019...

Edinburgh Fringe

STILL TO COME

...But 2018 isn't over yet and we have lots of exciting shows, workshops and events coming up. First up, don't miss Improv Mullet featuring special guest Nathan Jansen (Baby Wants Candy, iO, ComedySportz Chicago). Improv Mullet is our adults only show that combines short and longform improv comedy with quick gags and games in the first half and a whole improvised play in the second. We're absolutely thrilled to have Nathan join us for this show and you really don't want to miss it! As always, anyone with a genuine Mullet gets in for free.

Improv Mullet. 1st September. 7.30pm. £3 on the door. The Kings Arms, Salford.

Nathan will also be joining us for a one day workshop on Narrative Improv on September 1st and we also have a couple of spaces left on our two-day sketch writing workshop this weekend as well.

Speaking of workshops, spaces are really starting to fill up on our 8 week Foundation in Improv and Beginning Stand Up Comedy courses commencing 6th October 2018. Whether you're looking to develop new performance skills, improve communication and listening, build confidence or just want to rediscover play and have a laugh with new people then our workshops are for you! Find out more about all of our upcoming workshops and courses on our workshops page.

improv workshops manchester

We have plenty of upcoming ComedySportz shows at the Waterside in Sale and the fantastic new theatre space The Way in Atherton. If you're looking for big laughs for really little kids be sure to check out ComedySportz 4 Tots at the Waterside as well! We celebrated 10 years at Waterside earlier this year and are really excited to be collaborating with The Way.

We'll be celebrating our 17th year with our annual return to Chorley Little Theatre in November. Tickets are available now!

We're also delighted to be continuing our collaboration with the University of Salford as The New Adelphi Comedy Night returns in September.

Finally, to round out the year our Improvised Pantomime returns to the Waterside. We're thrilled to be bringing back the show as it proved to be a real hit in 2017.

You can find out about all of our upcoming shows here.

Liverpool Improvageddon

ComedySportz UK came third this year at Liverpool's Improvageddon. A fun time was had by all (CSz Player Mark Rawle's troupe Sticky Floor were this years winners!)1013528_10151462947641268_506908669_n