Christmas is coming early this year with the arrival of Bad Santa at The Court Theatre for a very special edition of late-night comedy show Scared Scriptless: Mid-Winter Christmas.

Bad Santa is a character normally reserved for Christmas time, but Artistic Director of The Court Jesters, Dan Bain, thought mid-winter Christmas would be an appropriate time to invite Bad Santa back to The Court to host Scared Scriptless.

“We had this idea that if Bad Santa is bad at Christmas… What is he like in the middle of the year, when he’s not even on the job?”

The character of Bad Santa came about as an antidote for people who have Christmas fatigue with his cheeky, inappropriate humour.

“Bad Santa is the anti-Santa Claus. It came out of the idea of what if one Santa was actually under the psychological pressure of delivering Christmas en-masse world-wide and wasn’t very good at coping with that pressure?”

There’s sure to be a helpful Christmas elf or two attempting to control Bad Santa’s behaviour on the night as he takes over the stage and challenges the Jesters.

“There’s usually a ‘me vs them’ dynamic between the MC and the players in Scared Scriptless and that dynamic will certainly be emphasized with Bad Santa as the host,” Bain said. 

Despite his naughty habits, Bad Santa hasn’t completely forgotten his Christmas duties, with Bain promising that Bad Santa will be in the foyer after the show for anyone who wants a photo on Santa’s knee.

Scared Scriptless runs every Friday and Saturday night at The Court Theatre at 10:15pm. Scared Scriptless: Mid-Winter Christmas will run for one night only on 14th July at 10:15pm. Click here to buy tickets.