Comedy: Flip Starring Smug Roberts

WHEN a family member dies, your first reaction isn't usually to crack a joke. Unless you're a stand-up comedian – then joke-cracking might be your best way through it.

That was the experience of actor and stand-up Smug Roberts. When he suffered a traumatic loss, he did what he knew how to do best – he transformed it into a performance.

Flip – his one-man-show playing at the Dancehouse Theatre on Oxford Road in November – is the result.

Smug Roberts is best known for roles in That Peter Kay Thing and Phoenix Nights but he's not just a TV funny man. 'Serious' roles on his CV include Cutting It and Clocking Off amongst others.

In Flip he juxtaposes both sides of the theatrical mask, moving between joy and sadness with split-second timing. So although it's a play about a tragedy, it's bizarrely funny.

The director is Noreen Kershaw – fact fans will know she was the original Shirley Valentine when it was first performed at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool. After a long career in the soaps, she turned to directing and has episodes of Shameless, Coronation Street and Emmerdale to her name.

Together, Noreen and Smug create an impressive team. It's a powerful performance – a comedy night that has you asking big questions as well as giving you big laughs.

If you want to go, we've got tickets for the show at the Dancehouse Theatre, Oxford Road, on 30 November 2011 at 7.45pm.

Interested? Find out more.