Susan Calman returns to stand-up with ten years of life, television and unlikely adventures to unpack.
Ten years can do strange things to a comedian. In Susan Calman’s case, they have taken her from the immediacy of the stand-up stage to cruise ships, Scottish roads, television studios and dance floors, while turning her into one of those increasingly familiar broadcasters whose enthusiasm for whatever happens to be in front of her seems remarkably difficult to fake. Which makes her decision to return to stand-up rather interesting.
When Calman arrives at The Auditorium in Liverpool on Saturday 7 November 2026 with Tall Tales, she won’t simply be bringing a new show to the city. This is her first stand-up tour in a decade, a return to the form of performance in which there is nowhere to hide: one performer, one audience and a collection of stories that have to work in the room. Fortunately, Calman has spent those ten years accumulating quite a few of them.
Her television career has taken her around Scotland, across Britain and onto cruise ships around the world, while somewhere along the way she has driven tanks, danced her way through Strictly Come Dancing and continued a long-standing obsession with cats. Tall Tales takes that increasingly improbable collection of experiences and brings it back to the live stage, alongside something considerably more universal: the trials, indignities and occasional triumphs of getting older.
It is easy, given the warmth of Calman’s television persona, to forget that stand-up came considerably earlier. Indeed, comedy itself represented a fairly dramatic change of direction. She originally worked as a corporate lawyer, a career that took her from Death Row in the United States to the United Nations in Geneva, before deciding that making people laugh offered a more appealing future.
What followed was a career that has moved freely between radio, television, writing, podcasting and presenting. Yet returning to stand-up after such a lengthy absence presents a different proposition. Television has made Calman considerably more recognisable than she was the last time she toured, but live comedy removes the edits, retakes and comforting distance of the screen. Perhaps that is part of the attraction.
“It’s been ten whole years since I last headed out on tour, and I couldn’t be more excited to get back on the road,” says Calman, who admits to having collected enough ridiculous and unbelievable stories during that time to feel they ought to be shared in person – preferably, she adds, while dancing badly.
The title Tall Tales feels particularly appropriate. Calman has always been an engaging storyteller, capable of finding humour in her own enthusiasms and vulnerabilities without needing to stand outside them. A decade of unexpected experiences should provide plenty to work with, but the more intriguing prospect is seeing what ten years away has done to the stand-up comedian herself.
But things have come full circle. After years spent travelling with television crews, exploring unfamiliar places and becoming a reassuringly regular presence in people’s living rooms, Calman is returning to the simplicity of walking onto a stage and telling stories. Liverpool now gets the opportunity to hear them in November. And yes, apparently there will probably be dancing.
Susan Calman: Tall Tales
Saturday 7 November 2026, 7.30pm
The Auditorium, Liverpool
Age guidance: 14+; under-18s must be accompanied by an adult
Tickets
