Pun Championships 2020 line-up announced

The Leicester Comedy Festival has announced the line-up for this year's Pun Championships.

It will be held in the city on Monday 10th February, the festival-inaugurated sixth annual UK PunDay, and hosted by Jason Byrne.

Described as a "rap-battle style pun-off staged in a boxing ring", the contestants will compete for the title of UK Pun Champion 2020.

Topics are picked randomly during the show and competitors take it in turns to make puns around that particular topic. The public audience votes for their favourite pun - by way of woops and cheers - with the winner progressing to the next round.

The two final remaining comics then fight it out until a winner is crowned.

Selected to compete in the final this year are: Iain MacDonald, Philip Simon, Stevie Vegas, Richard Pulsford, Richard Woolford, Chris Norton Walker, Adele Cliff and Kat Molinari.

Last year's winner was Colin Leggo.

Geoff Rowe, Founder and Director of Leicester Comedy Festival, says: "It's often said that some of the best ideas are thought up in the pub, well that was absolutely the case with The UK Pun Championships! We were discussing celebrating British comedy and quickly chatted about puns and whether they are a particularly British thing. It certainly seems that French puns are not very good..... So, the event was born and has grown in silliness each year since 2015.

"We're delighted to welcome a great line up of pun-based comedians to Leicester Comedy Festival, from across the UK, to battle it out in a genuine boxing ring, hosted by the wonderful Jason Byrne. The best way to celebrate #UKPunday is of course at the UK Pun Championships, but if you can't be there, be sure to join in online and share your puns using #UKPunDay."