Geordie jokester Deage Paxton returns with his new comedy creation ‘Dead Man’s Hand’, billed as a “choose your own adventure” stand-up show.
This brings to mind the Choose Your Own Adventure books of yore, which offered overly optimistic readers multiple disappointing endings rather than a single, satisfying conclusion. Paxton takes that idea and pushes it into something far more unpredictable and anarchic.
As it happens, Deage Paxton is an award-winning comedy performer and possible madman, whose production ‘Dead Man’s Hand’ has received glowing yet mildly horrified praise from audiences and critics alike. Having worked the UK comedy circuit for over fifteen years, he has carved out a distinct niche built on absurd non-sequiturs, crude silliness and sharp improvisation, and has supported top UK acts including Nish Kumar, Rosie Jones and dour-faced legend Jack Dee.
Deage will be giving a preview of this fully interactive and wildly imaginative stand-up experiment at Newcastle’s The Stand Comedy Club before taking it to the month-long 2026 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Inspired by the American Old West legend of Wild Bill Hickok’s infamous poker game, Paxton has devised a format based on a deck of 100 jokes, ranging from relatively clean to positively obscene. The order, tone and direction of the show are chosen by the audience, meaning each performance is entirely different.
This unique approach determines what kind of show the audience experiences. Will they laugh, cringe, gasp or experience all three? Deage invites audiences to “curate the chaos”, making each night a shared act of creation.
Under-18s, pearl-clutchers and squares need not apply.
Tickets, priced at £10.00 in advance, are available at thestand.co.uk.
