“Zaltzman is a master of lacerating satire mixed with extreme silliness, topped off with a dash of the surreal… a peerless set from comedy’s finest cricket-loving, satirical Taskmaster champion.”
Mark Wareham, The Mail on Sunday ★★★★
“topical laughs with a surreal ripple. This is irreverent humour with a mocking edge so sharp you could cut a diamond with it… reduced most of the people around me to tears of laughter”
Bruce Dessau, Evening Standard ★★★★
“who else offers so many sideswipes at the status quo? The political comedian is constantly amusing and stimulating … properly funny… a true original and a true delight.”
Dominic Maxwell, The Times ★★★★
10th September – Following a critically-acclaimed and sold-out 2024/2025 tour, Andy Zaltzman – host of The Bugle podcast and BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz, statistician on Test Match Special, and champion of Taskmaster series 18 – extends his hit live show The Zaltgeist into 2026.
Fully updated due to the UK and the world both steadfastly refusing to sort themselves out, The Zaltgeist 2026 – A Second Thwack will start in February 2026 and run until May 2026, including dates in Bristol, Leeds, Hull, Salford, Cambridge, Brighton, Edinburgh and Liverpool, along with a show at London’s Soho Theatre Walthamstow on Friday 17th April.
Tour tickets go on general sale at 10am on Friday 19th September, with an exclusive fan pre-sale on Thursday 18th September for Andy’s mailing list subscribers. Full dates and tickets at www.andyzaltzman.co.uk
The Zaltgeist sees one of the UK’s leading satirical comedians assess the state of renowned planet Earth, its under-pressure current in-house millennium, and its most famous and controversial species – the human race.
With politicians the world over striving to outdo each other with ever-more flamboyant cocktails of incompetence, inexplicability and insatiable dishonesty, Andy, the universe’s leading and only 2-in-1 political-comedian-and-professional-cricket-statistician, harnesses the combined 21st-century witchcraft of A.I. and his live audience. Between them, they will concoct vaguely plausible answers to perennially troublesome questions such as What?, Who?, When?, Where?, and above all Why?
A regular presence on BBC Radio 4 over the last two decades, Andy became host of The News Quiz in 2020. He has brought his inventive brand of satirical comedy to Radio 4’s long-running flagship topical comedy show, earning the show multiple awards, critical acclaim and a growing listenership.
Andy is also unquestionably amongst the very best of the one-person list of Satirical Stand-Up Comedians Who Are Also Professional Cricket Statisticians. Since 2016, he has been a key member of the Test Match Special team, adding his distinctive blend of knowledge, expertise, humour and numerical inquisitiveness to the BBC’s legendary cricket broadcast.
Andy has hosted The Bugle, one of the world’s longest-running and best-loved comedy podcasts, since 2007. Renowned for its unique cocktail of up-to-the-minute global satire and premium-grade hogwash, and listened to by hundreds of thousands around the world, The Bugle recently passed the 650-episode mark, and has clocked up around 100 million total downloads. Andy co-hosted with John Oliver for the show’s 293-episode, eight-year first season, since when a selection of guest co-hosts from around the world – including Nish Kumar, Alice Fraser, Hari Kondabolu, David O’Doherty, Aditi Mittal and Mark Steel – have entertained The Bugle’s worldwide audience.
Andy has taken The Bugle Live show on tour in the USA, the UK and Australia, and will be hosting an 18th-birthday show at London’s Leicester Square Theatre on 26 October, which will be live-streamed around the world and feature a live link-up with John Oliver.
Crowned Champion in the 2025 BAFTA-nominated Taskmaster Series 18 (Channel 4) last year, Andy’s other extensive TV, radio and podcast appearances include Unspun with Matt Forde (Dave), Pointless Celebrities (BBC), 8 Out Of 10 Cats (Channel 4), Russell Howard’s Good News (BBC), Politics Live (BBC), WTF with Marc Maron, John Oliver’s New York Stand-Up Show (Comedy Central), The Alternative Comedy Experience (Comedy Central), The Weekly with Charlie Pickering (ABC), 7 Day Sunday (BBC Radio 5 Live), and The Now Show (BBC Radio 4).
Andy’s live stand-up has drawn audiences and critical acclaim around the UK and the world. He has toured extensively in the UK and Ireland, as well as in North America, India, New Zealand and Australia, where he has appeared at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. He is also one of the few British comedians to have performed stand-up in Bangladesh. Andy has also been a regular at the Edinburgh Fringe throughout the millennium, building his reputation as one of the most inventive satirists in the world, and his annual Certifiable History review-of-the-year shows at the Soho Theatre were a fixture in the satirical calendar in the late 2010s.
In 2008 his book about the Credit Crunch, Does Anything Eat Bankers?, was published by Old Street Publishing. He has also written for ESPNcricinfo, The Observer, The Times, The i, and The Guardian.
“Andy Zaltzman has revitalised the News Quiz… fizzes with a vitality and sense of fun that’s rare in such topical comedy warhorses.”
Steve Bennett, Chortle
“The Bugle: Silliness and laughter…Zaltzman is a sharp writer and an excellent satirist who combines political observation with daft whimsy.”
Fiona Sturges, Financial Times
“Setting the world to rights, one joke at a time… a laugh-packed hour”
Veronica Lee, The Arts Desk
“much more than clever, dextrous wordplay… An evening of wit and wisdom, profanity and profundity”
Bruce Blacklaw, The Scotsman
“Probably the best satirical comic we’ve produced in the last two decades. Intelligent, biting and silly”
Ben Williams, Time Out London
“Political comedy at its best”
Stephen Armstrong, Sunday Times
“Fiendishly sharp satirist”
Bruce Dessau, Evening Standard
For more information, images, press tickets, or if you have interview requests, please contact:
Perrine Davari at PDavari@avalonuk.com / 020 7598 8000
