In 2004 Southport launched a comedy week, which actually lasted 10 days and ran from October 14^th to 24^th.

Headliners were Barry Cryer and Jimmy Carr and Jimmy’s gig was on Wednesday the 20^th at the Southport Theatre. The show was advertised as starting at 8pm, tickets £15 and the gig was a part of his Public Display of Affection tour.

Jimmy was labelled as “the face of Comedy on C4 after the success of Your Face or Mine and the prime-time game show Distraction.”

He was also described as “fresh from his triumphant stint at the Edinburgh festival”, which had been 6 shows at the EICC in August (see here).

Edinburgh though was 2 months prior to this and what he was actually fresh from was filming Distraction in the US. This was revealed in an article in the Crosby Herald (on October 14^th) who described him, in relation to America, as “fast becoming a household name” and, in relation to his stand-up, “one of the best comics of his generation”.

That same interview described him as qualifying as a psychotherapist “in his spare time” with Jimmy quipping that it was “a cheap way of getting therapy yourself”.

The first show, of the “week”, was listed as featuring Jo Caulfield (Southport Arts Centre) and she was credited as “writing the opening monologues for all 5 series of the BAFTA winning So Graham Norton”.

John Bishop was also scheduled to appear and press articles said that he had been named North West Comedian of the Year in 2001.