James Acaster fans have joked that tickets for the comic’s new tour are “harder to get than Glastonbury”.
The stand-up comedian is heading out on the road later this year with his new show Hecklers Welcome, his first UK tour since 2019’s cold lasagne hate myself 1999.
The first lot of dates went on sale on Friday (31 March), with shows in Cardiff, Kettering, Glasgow, Salford, Birmingham, Dublin, Brighton, Bristol, Leeds, Belfast. The list of dates can be found here, with more to be announced.
However, many fans found that, as tickets went on sale, they were unable to purchase tickets due to the various ticket websites crashing.
Sharing a photo of a screen that said there were “too many internet transactions in process”, one fan tweeted: “Tried to get James Acaster tickets, had a breakdown, bon appetit,” in reference to the comic’s much-memed appearance on The Great Celebrity Bake Off.
“Buying James Acaster tickets went super well Thanku x,” another fan commented, their screen simply reading: “This service is unavailable.”
“Why is it harder to get James Acaster tickets than it is to get Glastonbury tickets?” another punter questioned.
“Logged on to website at 9.45 to get James Acaster tickets. Placed in massive queue at 10am. Queued for twenty minutes. Tickets sold out. Had a breakdown. Bon appetit,” one tweet read.
“Trying to get James Acaster tickets is gonna be my Joker origin story,” another fan joked.
Following his last tour, Acaster took a break from stand-up comedy, with many fans believing he’d given up the profession for good.
However, speaking to The Independent in August, the Off Menu host said that he “never said I’d quit”, adding: “Some people were under the impression that I did quit, but I really didn’t.”
On returning to the stage for Hecklers Welcome, Acaster said that he had spent his break from comedy working on his relationship with the audience, rather than derailing entire shows to talk to hecklers.
“I’m going into it knowing, ‘Here are the things that I really didn’t enjoy before, so let’s focus on those things and let’s focus on making that better, and making that aspect of my performance better,’” he said.
“To now pick it up from there and go, ‘OK, I don’t like all those things, but what are we going to do about that? How are we going to make sure those things don’t ruin it for you?’ – that’s been really positive.”
