New Year’s: The Laughter Factory

BY Omaya Michelle

When the hype has settled on the festive season and the work routine starts again, there’s nothing like a laugh to keep your spirits up. The Laughter Factory is just what you need, and it has returned this January; headlined by the Arab Essex girl, Esther Manito, with talks surrounding feminism, relationships, and her quest to control her body hair, British comedian, Stephen Grant, and John Fothergill.

Esther Manito

Manito was born to an English mother (a ‘Geordie’ — from the North-East of England) and Lebanese father in the small town of Saffron Walden in Essex, where, she says, she felt like a fish out of water! She’s being noticed for all the right reasons: her funny, fresh and original comedy, which confronts issues that are often brushed under the carpet. Namely, what it means to be an Arab Muslim in the UK and how, for many women, motherhood is — to put it mildly — ‘challenging.’

Stephen Grant

Stephen Grant is a British comedian, comedy writer, and radio presenter. He hosts the Krater Comedy Club at Komedia in Brighton, which won the Chortle Award for Best Comedy Club in the South for 2002–2006, 2008, and 2011–2014. In 2008 and 2011, Grant won the Chortle Award for Best Compère.

John Fothergill

John hails from Crawcrook, a small village in the North East of England. After spending the majority of his childhood trying to convince the rest of the community that he was a very special child, they finally agreed and after the traditional tar and feathering banished him to the nearest city – the vast cosmopolitan metropolis that is Newcastle upon Tyne. John became a regular at Newcastle’s Comedy Café and in 1993, his first year as a comedian, he had been lucky enough to appear with the likes of Jack Dee, Lee Evans, and Jo Brand!