Mark Simmons: Jest to Impress

Mark Simmons brings Jest to Impress to the Corn Exchange on Thursday 10 September, starting at 19:30 and running until 21:10. He's billed as a master of one-liners, and the show lives up to that: it's built around intricate puns and wordplay, delivered in formal black tie. He splits his material into 'quickies' and 'thinkers', and keeps his cheekier gags in a black book rather than a blue one. The scripted stuff sits alongside his trademark off-the-cuff jokes, which he builds on the fly from random audience suggestions.

Simmons has a proper track record with the one-liner format. He won Dave's Funniest Joke of the Fringe in 2024 and the Victoria Wood Panel Prize at the Fringe in 2023, and was named UK Comics' Comic in 2022 after placing as a runner-up in Dave's Top 10 Jokes of the Fringe that same year. He's appeared on Mock The Week, BT Sport and ITV, and his debut tour sold more than 200 dates across the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand over two years. Critics have described his approach as an 'artisan's grasp of joke writing'.

Beyond the stage, he hosts the podcast Jokes With Mark Simmons, where he invites comics like Gary Delaney, Sarah Millican, Milton Jones and Penn & Teller to talk about jokes they wrote but couldn't quite get to work. It's a good look at the craft behind the one-liners he's known for.

Tickets for the Corn Exchange date start from £24. Under 14s must be accompanied by an adult.