#NewmanMcr countdown: 12 days to go

We are delighted to be teaming up with Bad Language to promote our event on June 4. Here is a remarkable event they held last year at the Manchester Museum. Jenn Ashworth and Helen Mort read.

#NewmanMcr countdown: 13 days to go

Our gig a week on Tuesday (have we mentioned it yet) will be part literary knees-up and part stand-up. Rob will have plenty of time to entertain you in An Evening With Robert Newman And Guests. So it seems appropriate to turn back the clock to a 2001 comedy routine.

Buy £3 tickets for his June 4 event now at We Got Tickets, or from our shop. Join the Facebook event here.  And follow the #Newman hashtag on Twitter.

#NewmanMcr countdown: 14 days to go

Our countdown continues. Says Rob Newman:

" Even though this is fiction and not standup, I'm hoping that people who enjoyed History Of Oil will like The Trade Secret, too. Two reasons. #1, the novel tells the story of Oil, The Early Years. #2 as with History of Oil, The Trade Secret tells a secret history, forgotten facts from our past, e.g. long before she ever sailed to America, The Mayflower may well have transported Mediterranean slaves from port to port across the Ottoman Empire. She was a part time slave ship before she was famous."

The Otto-what? Let us enlighten you... from a Venetian point of view. Contains fish and moustaches.

#NewmanMcr countdown: 15 days to go

Young servant Nat Bramble comes a cropper in Robert Newman's The Trade Secret because he dabbles in rogue trading. It's a theme that has resonance across the centuries - even in this rather trite BBC television programme in which a presenter provokes a dodgy dealer without getting beaten up. Still... it's quite entertaining. We promise our event will be utterly professional, honest!

#NewmanMcr countdown: 16 days to go

Robert Newman's feeling down, but don't worry, it's happening in the 1990s. Contains the phrase "dodecahedrically paralysed".

#NewmanMcr countdown: 17 days to go

Robert Newman's book The Trade Secret mentions pigeons. There is absolutely, absolutely no other reason for posting this video other than it mentions something in a book that's being launched at our event. Sigh.

#NewmanMcr countdown: 18 days to go

Here is one of our amazing support acts for our June 4 event at Gorilla Manchester. Anneliese Mackintosh reads Like You.