BIG news on the entertainment front is that America’s Got Talent winner, highly acclaimed ventriloquist and comedian Paul Zerdin is touring the UK with a date pencilled in at The Forum.

Paul’s Puppet Party will come to the Barrow venue on November 8 with tickets already on sale.

Paul has a powerful stage presence and made his television debut in 1996 as the first outright winner of LWT’s The Big Big Talent Show, hosted by Jonathan Ross. Since, he has appeared on countless TV shows, including Comedy Central's The World Stands Up, ITV1's Comedy Rocks with Jason Manford, Tonight at the London Palladium, the Princes Trust Gala and has made three appearances at the Royal Variety Performance. His auditions for America's Got Talent have racked up millions of views on YouTube and Paul is currently developing TV projects in both the UK and the US.

More recently, Paul returned to the London Palladium pantomime in Snow White, having also starred in the 2017 Olivier Award-winning Dick Whittington at Palladium. He took a Las Vegas residency at the legendary Planet Hollywood with his hit show Mouthing Off, and toured the UK with All Mouth in 2017.

Paul's dysfunctional puppet family stars favourites Sam, Albert and Baby, as well as his new bodyguard, an urban fox. The show contains some hilarious audience participation and, apparently, a talking ice cream, all using a mixture of master puppeteering, state of the art animatronic wizardry and a unique blend of edgy comedy. Paul's skills are top notch, he has a strong command of a range of different voices and terrific sense of timing that brings his characters to life.

Taking in a total of 40 dates, the tour begins at Bedford’s Corn Exchange on September 18, and concludes at London’s Duchess Theatre on November 25.

Meanwhile, on Sunday (3pm), The Forum host one of the most successful brass bands in history, the Reg Vardy Band. Formed in 1910 as the Craghead Colliery Band in the mining village of Craghead, near Stanley, in County Durham, the band have won the Northern Regional Championships more times than any other brass band in the country and consistently feature in the World Brass Band Rankings top 20.

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