Comedy prankster Lee Nelson heads to Southend this weekend!

27 Jun Comedy prankster Lee Nelson heads to Southend this weekend!

Famous for getting into trouble by sneaking into places he really ought not to, Lee Nelson is back where he most definitely should be: live on stage with a brand-new, laugh-out-loud, stand-up show.

Nelson – real name Simon Brodkin – is bringing his latest show, Serious Joker, to the Park Inn Palace this Sunday (30 June, from 8pm).

Replacing the more familiar t-shirt, shorts and baseball cap, Nelson now sports a rather natty suit, albeit complete with a security tag on the sleeve. However, the cheeky-chappie, South London wideboy persona remains firmly in place.

Expect a wild ride, as Lee gets to know the ‘legends’ in the audience and then riffs off their responses, heckles and suggestions of what to discuss – whether its replacement buses or Brexit, guide dogs or the NHS, expect plenty of silliness and some close-to-the-mark material.

While many fans know that the character of Lee Nelson is a fiction created by the former doctor, Simon Brodkin, several high-profile people have not and much to their cost. While the dim, happy-go-lucky geezer persona of Lee is famous, Brodkin has created a host of new characters for a succession of outrageous and wildly funny pranks.

He has gate-crashed the X Factor stage, while Stereo Kicks were on stage and joined in their performance, as ‘Jason Bent’ he masqueraded as a Manchester City player and took part in a pre-match warm, prior to the team’s game against Everton at Goodison Park.

In 2015 he stormed the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury wearing a ‘Lee-zus’ T-shirt and began rapping with Kanye West, shouting that he wanted to “give him a hand” and in the same year, he showered disgraced FIFA president Sepp Blatter with hundreds of dollar bills in bribe payments “for the North Korea 2026 World Cup bid”, on live TV.

During the 2017 Conservative Party conference, Nelson confronted the Prime Minister, Theresa May during her keynote speech and handed her a P45 form. Amid the chaotic scenes that resulted, Nelson joked that – then Foreign Secretary and current candidate in the race to become the new Tory leader – Boris Johnson had put him up to it, telling reporters as he was bundled away: “Boris told me to do it. He’s left me in the lurch.”

The comedian has also enjoyed success on TV, with BBC Three shows Lee Nelson’s Well Good Show and Lee Nelson’s Well Funny People, but he still enjoys performing stand-up. Lee headlines the evening’s bill at the Park Inn on Sunday, 30 June from 8pm, where he will be supported by Leigh on Sea-based Ash Frith, with host Ross McGrane from Little Smash Comedy, completing the quality line-up.

Tickets are available now at www.thesouthendfestival.co.uk/events/ross-big-birthday-bash-with-lee-nelson
For more information about the Southend Festival, click on www.visitsouthend.co.uk, like the Facebook page @VisitSouthendonSea, or follow @VisitSouthend on Twitter.