Comedy of the week: Leicester Comedy Festival, various venues, Leicester

With 500 shows over 16 days and the support of the comedy TV channel Dave, Leicester's annual hoodang is becoming a bona fide highlight of the comedy year.

As ever with these huge dos, there's a heap of touring shows passing through – including fresh one-liners from Milton Jones in On the Road; Al Murray's The Only Way Is Epic; offbeat observational stand-up from Irishman Jimeoin in What?!; and Edinburgh-gong-winning neuroticism from Daniel Simonsen in Champions – and slightly less-polished fare from a tip-top bunch offering work-in-progress (among them Tom Rosenthal, Holly Burn, Andrew Lawrence and Nick Helm).

Elsewhere, look out for Sara Pascoe (the, like, totally spot-on PR creative in Twenty Twelve) in Sara Pascoe vs The Truth; cult lunatic Charlie Chuck (Vic and Bob's Uncle Peter); The Rubberbandits' deranged comedy hip-hop; and – there's more – welly-worrying Eighties stage Oirishman Jimmy Cricket.

(0116 242 3595;comedy-festival.co.uk) Fri to 24 Feb

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