John Kearns - Tilting At Windmills

John Kearns brings his new stand-up show, Tilting At Windmills, to Peddler Warehouse on Thursday 22 April. It's part of a live comedy tour he's running with director Jon Brittain, which kicks off on 11 February 2026 and carries on until 18 June 2027. The show had its run at the 2026 Edinburgh Fringe, so by the time it reaches Sheffield, it'll have had a fair bit of time to settle in.

If you've never seen him, Kearns is a stand-up whose whole stage persona is built on fragmentation and digression. He sketches a portrait of a 38-year-old man alluding to books he hasn't read and touching on the modern condition, rather than sticking to a straight line of jokes. He's a face known to television audiences, having appeared on Taskmaster (Channel 4), Live At The Apollo (BBC) and Never Mind The Buzzcocks (Sky), and he first came to prominence with his Sky stand-up special The Varnishing Days. He's also an Edinburgh Comedy Award winner.

He's admitted to being more comfortable on podcasts than in the spotlight, yet he comes alive on stage. That's a good thing to keep in mind if you're deciding whether to go: he's a performer who works best when he's actually in front of people, rather than behind a mic in a studio. Tilting At Windmills is directed by Jon Brittain, and the two are touring it together as part of a wider live comedy tour that runs from February 2026 through to June 2027.

So, if you're after a night of stand-up that's more about the drift and the digression than the punchline, you'll find it here. John Kearns is at Peddler Warehouse on Thursday 22 April.