Who remembers Spangles?

From winning a televised comedy talent show with a £100,000 prize to warming up studio audiences for sitcoms filmed at Elstree — Patrick Monahan has done it all, and he's done it with a grin you can hear through your speakers.In this Spotlight Special, Patrick sits down with us to trace the unlikely path from open-mic nights in grotty flat-roof pubs to prime-time TV. He unpacks the craft behind crowd work that feels like a conversation, the art of guiding an audience without them ever noticing, and why a 70-year-old and a 25-year-old can laugh at the exact same joke.We dive into his Edinburgh Fringe show — provocatively titled I'm Not a Terrorist, I'm Freddie Mercury — and the story behind growing up Iranian-Irish in 1980s Middlesbrough, where the nickname came long before the punchlines. Plus: Robert Plant vs. Robbie Williams as neighbours, what George Carlin understood that TikTok just rediscovered, and why someone once reported Ed Byrne's shed to the council.Warm, witty, and full of stories from a career that refuses to slow down — this is Patrick Monahan in the Spotlight

Recorded just days before our massive marquee shows with Russell Kane, former co-host Ross Downes makes his return for an unmissable Green Room Special!​This week, we’re stepping out of the spotlight and taking a seat in the crowd to count down the Top 10 Comedy Night Sins—and we aren't holding back:​Front-Row Fatalities: The hidden dangers of sitting up front, attention-seeking audience members, and a mortifying encounter with James Acaster that still hurts to think about.​Stage Sins: The quickest ways a stand-up or promoter can completely lose the room and make an entire audience cringe.​Venue Buzzkills: The worst gig-night logistical disasters, plus a controversial Bellenddoor winner guaranteed to ruin your next overnight stay.​Hit subscribe, drop your own ultimate gig pet peeves in the comments, and get ready for a huge weekend!

This week, Paul is joined by comedian, pub obsessive and beer evangelist James Dowdeswell for a proper chinwag about British boozers, comedy and the sacred art of standing at the bar.Having grown up above a pub, James explains why the great British boozer matters more than ever — and why he took to the TEDx stage to defend pub culture.Inside this episode:The Extras audition: How chair-humping in front of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant helped James become “Count Fuckula.”Growing up in a boozer: Beer barrels, bar chatter and life above the pub.Pub crimes: Screaming kids, wrong glasses and queuing at the bar like it’s the Post Office.Lazy Eye PA: How lockdown led James to create his own craft beer.A cracking Bellen D'or.Plus brief appearances from Angel the rescue dog and Monty the cat.Grab a pint, pull up a stool and get involved.Watch James’s TEDx talk The Social Power of Beer & Pubs ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tBxgFDm6Mc . Find out more about his beer at lazyeyepa.co.uk.

How does a Welsh accent end up sounding Bengali — and can one driveway video really change a comedian’s entire career?This week, Paul Dunn meets Wilson Milton: comedian, promoter, social media sensation and part-time carpet fitter whose brutally accurate accent videos have racked up millions of views.Wilson reveals how a spontaneous clip filmed while reversing down a driveway exploded to 7.5 million views, why ditching polished stand-up fr something more authentic transformed his live act, and how he gets away with impressions that could go very wrong in less skilful hands.They also expose the reality of running independent comedy nights, discuss whether social media is killing off comedy’s traditional gatekeepers and decide exactly why Jamie Oliver deserves to be shoved through this week’s Bellen D'or.Viral fame, risky accents, comedy politics and a celebrity roasting — this one has the lot.Follow Wilson: @wilsonsjokes

What do Marc Bolan, David Bowie, George Martin, Eric Clapton, and Elton John all have in common? They’ve all crossed paths with the extraordinary Steve Jameson!Before he was tearing up the comedy circuit as the legendary old-school comic Sol Bernstein, Steve lived a dozen lives in show business. In this episode, Steve sits down to share mind-blowing, unfiltered tales from a career that spans decades:* Passing Messages via David Bowie: Growing up as childhood best friends with Marc Bolan and using David Bowie as a human WhatsApp to pass notes between them.* Top of the Pops & 60s Stardom: Hitting the charts with The Truth and The Javels, touring with The Small Faces, and getting name-checked by Eric Clapton at a midnight service station run-in.* The Beatles Connection: Pitching songs directly to legendary Beatles producer George Martin and collaborating with songwriting royalty Roger Greenaway.* Northern Soul & Beyond: How a chance white-label record became a massive Northern Soul anthem at the Wigan Casino and Blackpool Mecca.* Life in Comedy: Hilarious backstage encounters with Noddy Holder, Joe Pasquale, and the origin of his iconic character, Sol Bernstein.From cutting hair as a teenage barber on Shaftesbury Avenue to scoring Top 30 hits and reinventing himself as one of the sharpest acts in comedy—this is an unmissable masterclass in show business, nostalgia, and rock 'n' roll survival.Hit play now to hear the stories you won't get anywhere else!

A pub fight, a shattered kneecap and a bloke off his face in a train station at 8am — and that's before the Top 5 even starts.Paul and Scott count down the Top 5 times the nation stayed up late, demand the return of alpha football managers, tackle manscaping etiquette at PureGym and revisit a Millennium Eve story that should never be told in polite company.Oh, and Prince. Obviously.

Paul is joined by fellow northern comedian, MC, and promoter Stevie Gray for a candid chat about life at the circuit level. They work through Paul's Top 10 list of the things that quietly get an act crossed off the booking list — think getting shirty over directions, turning up late, tech demands revealed only on arrival, bringing an uninvited entourage, and spending half your set road-testing material that clearly isn't ready.Along the way they swap stories: the act who turned up two months early and somehow still went on, the headliner who cleared overtime with the promoter like a total pro, and the improv group who asked for four mics and a keyboard in a 35-seat basement.They also get honest about the economics of promoting — the ticket-checking anxiety, invisible overheads, and the companies who grew too fast and left everyone out of pocket — and how carefully they try to build line-ups that are both high quality and genuinely varied, without ever letting diversity become a box-ticking exercise at the expense of the show.Plus: Panini stickers, a World Cup that's had everything, and one guest who arrived fresh from a minor car crash.

What happens when you cross a former stand-up, an IT data nerd, and a genuine comedy obsessive? You get Tony Dunn — and this is one of our best guests yet.Tony is the brain behind Comedy IQ, a subscription data platform giving promoters real intelligence on which acts are actually worth booking in 2025 — tracking social stats, podcast reach, touring history and more. If you've ever wondered how comedy promoters decide who headlines, this episode pulls back the curtain.But we also dig into:🎤 Tony's own comedy journey — from rural Scotland with a teenage Kevin Bridges to open spots alongside Josh Widdicombe, James Acaster and Joel Dommett🐕 Being a dog mascot at Clyde FC and cocking his leg on Paul Gascoigne📊 Why social media fame doesn't equal stagecraft — and what happens when it all goes wrong live🔥 A viral NutriBullet incident that launched a two-million-view TikTok🏆 A cracking Retro Top 5: Who from comedy's past would absolutely smash it on social media today? (Benny Hill, Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson, Victoria Wood and a very worthy number one...)🔔 Plus: the Bellend Door — Russell Brand, the Sun's Shagger of the Year, and a sweary jingle that probably shouldn't have been used at a posh school.Funny, sharp, and packed with insight whether you're a comedy fan, a promoter, or just someone who remembers when Benny Hill was on at 8pm.Find Tony at comedyiq.co.uk | Instagram: @thetonydunn