Harrogate Comedy Festival kicked off on Monday 5th October, with a line-up featuring a mix of some big name stand-ups peppered with some quite different types of ‘comedy’.
One show that stands out is ‘The Thinking Drinkers Guide to The Legends of Liquor’. This is a show about alcohol delivered with both wisdom and humour. The audience will get to enjoy several free drinks as the ‘Thinking Drinkers’ (Ben McFarland & Tom Sandham) take them on a journey through the liquid lives of ‘history’s most extraordinary elbow-benders’ including Dorothy Parker, James Bond and Jesus Christ.
Ben & Tom are not simply comedians who like a drink – They are two of the UK’s leading and most respected experts on all aspects of alcohol.
They met in their 20s when they co-wrote the award-winning Good Beer Guide West Coast USA. Today as leading drinks journalists, they contribute to a wide range of magazines and write a weekly drinks column for The Daily Telegraph.
Ben is the triple-crowned “British Beer Writer of the Year” – the first as the youngest ever recipient. He is the author of the award-winning World’s Best Beers: 1000 Unmissable Brews from Portland to Prague and the recently published Boutique Beer: 500 of the World’s Finest Craft Brews.
Tom was editor of leading industry spirits and cocktail magazine CLASS and launched the World’s 50 Best Bars and House Tonic for the Soho House Group. He is the author of the Gourmand award-winning book World’s Best Cocktails, and was a nominee in the Fortnum & Mason Food & Drink Awards 2014.
Last year they co-authored Thinking Drinkers: An Enlightened Imbiber’s Guide to Alcohol, (Jacqui Small) – a hardback book with everything you need to know about alcohol.
Together they then wrote and performed the show “The Thinking Drinker’s Guide to Alcohol”, which debuted at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and, following sell-out shows and excellent reviews, returned in 2012 and 2013, also running at the Arts Theatre, the Soho Theatre in London’s West End and successfully transferring to Madrid, Spain. Their new show “The Thinking Drinkers’ Guide to the Legends of Liquor” opened at the Fringe in August 2014 and continues to tour throughout the UK in 2015.
No-one can argue that Ben & Tom clearly know their stuff, and the fact they share their expertise in this unique way is intriguing. Thursday’s audience is certainly in for an interactive evening of comedy with a twist.
The Thinking Drinkers Guide to The Legends of Liquor is at Harrogate Theatre on Thursday 15th October, 7.30pm. Tickets are £15 (Includes drinks). Ages 18+.
