Eli Hart: Work in Progress

Eli Hart is playing a work-in-progress set at The Canalhouse on Sunday 1 November, part of the Nottingham Comedy Festival. It's presented by NCF Comedy, and the show is held in the Secret Stage, which is tucked inside the pub at 48-52 Canal Street. A work-in-progress means he'll be on stage with new material he's still shaping, so it's a bit of a peek behind the curtain rather than a polished hour.

Hart is a West Midlands comedian whose act centres on the mundanity of life, and he's built a reputation on it. He won the 2025 BBC New Comedy Awards, was a finalist in the Komedia New Comedy Award 2025, and made the finals of Leicester Square New Comedian of the Year 2024. This run of results has put him on professional bills across the UK, and he's set to be part of the 2026 Pleasance Reserve at the Edinburgh Fringe. Chortle described his work as having a "remarkable astuteness about the minutiae of mundane existence," and Beyond the Joke compared him to a "gloomier young Jack Dee."

There's more to his work than stand-up, too. He's an award-winning writer and director whose short films have played at various film festivals, and he's currently commissioned to write a feature screenplay for a UK film studio. That writing background comes through in the comedy: the focus is on the small, everyday things that most people just overlook, and he finds the humour in how tedious and specific they can be.

Doors open at 7:10pm and the show starts at 7:30pm. Tickets are £8.00 plus an £0.80 booking fee, so £8.80 in total. The night is recommended for audiences aged 14 and over, and under-16s need to be accompanied by an adult.