July comedy in London receives an unexpected boost from the Greenwich Comedy Garden, which is basically the long-running Greenwich Comedy Festival with a slightly different name, staged earlier. Some massive Brit names headline. Elsewhere in London this month you can chuckle at everything from the return of US alt star Aziz Ansari to the extremely goofy Shrek-themed cabaret Swamplesque.
There are far, far too many one-off, multi-performer comedy nights in London for us to compile a single coherent page with our favouites on, which is entirely to London’s credit. So do check individual bills of comedy clubs online for that sort of thing. But if you’re looking for an individual comedian with a full headline show then this page is here to compile the Time Out editorial team’s top choices, often with our reviews from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The best comedy clubs in London.
The best new theatre shows to book for in London.
What is it? It’s all change – or quite a lot of change – at London’s biggest comedy festival, as the erstwhile Greenwich Comedy Festival moves two months ahead in the calendar and changs its name to the Greenwich Comedy Garden. Staged across five nights and two weekend afternoons, Tom Allen, Josh Widdicombe, Alan Davies, Sarah Pascoe, David O’Doherty, Jack Dee, Chris McCauseland and Ross Noble each headine a bill of four comics.
Where is it? Old Royal Navy College.
What is it? Now broadly uncancelled – general consensus seems to be that the excruciating account of a date with him published in the shortlived Babe magazine was mostly just cringe – Aziz Ansari hasn’t quite rescaled the popular heights of his Master of None glory days. But he remains a big draw, with perhaps a little more cynicism than he exhibited in the past in later years. Hypothetical hasn’t been reviewed anywhere yet, but word is it’s concerned with Ansari’s getting older, with musings on marriage and age.
Where is it? Royal Albert Hall.
Sir Lenny Henry has long since transcended being a ‘mere’ comedian – if he ever really was – with a career that has long leant more towards the stage, kids’ books and general elder statesman-ing. He’s still got it, though: aged 67 he heads out on his first stand-up tour in over a decade with Still at Large. His first since 2010, it’s billed as ‘part stand-up, part storytelling and part conversation’.
What is it? Swamplesque is, alarmingly, an unofficial but by all accounts very successful Shrek-themed burlesque show from Australia that has been slaing them Down Under and at the Edinburgh Fringe the last couple of years. It sounds extravagently silly but if you’re enamoured of the green ogre and his various adventures and want a laugh, it’s probably up your street.
Where is it? Soho Theatre Walthamstow.
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