Blackpool Grand announces Frank Skinner and his new tour Showbiz!

Following recent announcements of Rob Beckett, Jon Richardson, Alan Carr, Ed Byrne and Jack Dee… Blackpool Grand announces Frank Skinner and his new tour Showbiz!

On sale now!

Following a completely sold out five-week run at the West End’s Garrick Theatre to start 2020, Frank Skinner is taking his critically acclaimed show, Showbiz, back on the road with an additional 14 dates nationwide. In 2019, Frank sold out a 45-date national tour with Showbiz, as well as sold-out runs at London's Leicester Square Theatre and the Edinburgh Fringe. Performances start on 3rd April 2020 at De Montfort Hall, Leicester and finish in his hometown Birmingham at The Alexandra Theatre on 10th May with tickets going on sale tomorrow.

Frank commented, “The more people like this show the more I want to do it. There were some places I didn’t do on tour and some I did do that sold out extremely quickly. So now I’m refreshed, refuelled, and raring to get back out there.”

What the press said about Showbiz…

"A beautifully confessional new show. His material continues to improve and this is possibly his BEST SHOW YET.”

Stephen Armstrong, Sunday Times

“Real stand-up, real lightness of touch, real joy…”

The Times, Dominic Maxwell

“King of stand-up.”

Bruce Dessau, Evening Standard

“Doing what he does best…the gags just keep on coming. Stand-up’s coming home.”

Mark Wareham, Mail on Sunday

“Skinner is warm, impeccable company and his way with a punchline is still masterful…there are numerous brilliant moments…an evening in Skinner’s company is still a delight.”

Paul Fleckney, The Guardian

“Skinner is a comic at ease with himself and his career, and Showbiz proves to be a masterclass in owning the room.”

Veronica Lee, The i

“sharp punchlines…a witty, entertaining raconteur.”

Steve Bennett, Chortle

“He’s clearly lost none of his mojo.”

Sharon Lougher

Frank announced the Showbiz tour during a non-stop 10-hour radio show, which marked the 10-year anniversary of his hugely successful career at Absolute Radio. Frank’s award-winning show, The Frank Skinner Show, attracts over one million listeners per week, has achieved 10 million podcast downloads and saw him inducted into the Radio Academy’s Hall of Fame in 2016.

Frank Skinner’s live career began in 1987 when he spent £400 of his last £435 booking a room at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Four years later in 1991 he returned to the city and beat fellow nominees Jack Dee and Eddie Izzard to take home comedy’s most prestigious prize, The Perrier Award. Frank’s last live stand-up show, Man In a Suit, sold out its debut run at London’s Soho Theatre and a subsequent five week residency at the Leicester Square Theatre. Frank performed Man In a Suit for 24 consecutive nights at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2014 and went on to release the show on DVD through Universal Studios UK. 

Away from the stage, Frank’s TV credentials in 2018 included writing and starring as Johnny Cash in Johnny Cash & the Ostrich - a one-off special forming part of the successful Urban Myths series airing on Sky Arts, as well as hosting a seventh series of BBC1’s Room 101.  

As England made their World Cup run last summer, the iconic football anthem Three Lions, written by Frank alongside David Baddiel and The Lightning Seeds, topped the singles chart for a fourth separate time - the first time a single has ever reached number one on four separate occasions with the same artist line-up. 

Frank created The Frank Skinner Show (ITV), which is widely credited as setting the tone for the modern comedic chat show and ran for nine years, attracting 11 million viewers at its peak. He hosted three series of Frank Skinner’s Opinionated for BBC Two, and recently presented a one-off documentary, Frank Skinner on Muhammad Ali, for BBC One. In 2014 Frank guest starred in an episode of Doctor Who.  With David Baddiel, Frank created and presented Fantasy Football and Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned (ITV).

Alongside his regular show on Absolute Radio, Frank has carried out exclusive feature interviews for the station with a number of esteemed guests including Nobel Peace Prize-winning former Vice President Al Gore and Russell T Davies, former executive producer of Doctor Who. Frank has also written and starred in three series of the critically acclaimed comedy drama series Don’t Start for BBC Radio 4 and has created and hosted two series of his comedy panel show The Rest is History for BBC Radio 4.

As an author, Frank Skinner has published Dispatches from the Sofa; a collection of columns he wrote for The Times over a two-year period and has written two autobiographies, the first of which, Frank Skinner, was the top selling autobiography of 2002, spending 46 weeks in The Sunday Times Bestseller List. The second Frank Skinner On The Road, chronicled his 2007, sell-out return to stand-up.

Frank Skinner - Showbiz

Grand Theatre, 33 Church Street, Blackpool FY1 1HT

19 April 2020

Box Office 01253 290 190

blackpoolgrand.co.uk