The most popular comedy shows in London

In his latest dizzyingly high concept show, avant comedy legend Stewart Lee bemoans his irrelevance – something he’s been been bemoaning for decades, often with zeitgeisty results – in a new show in which he promises to unleash a new, callously offensive stage persona to compete with the likes of Ricky Gervais and Dave Chappelle. The Man-Wulf is, apparently, ‘a tough-talking werewolf comedian from the dark forests of the subconscious who hates humanity’. Expect nuclear levels of irony. 

Following a whole host of sell-out performances of this cult show all over the world, Shaggers returns to Leicester Square for another special show this V-day. Having a laugh at these comedians, who are of a variety of sexes, genders and orientations, could be a fun way to mix things up on the most romantic day of the year. The show is around two hours long, including an interval, and – as you might have guessed from the name – is all about sex. The ticket price includes a £2 restoration levy for this historic London venue.

This review is from the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe. What a title: in a world where comedy shows can have borderline meaningless conceits attached to them, ‘The Good Place’ writer Demi Adejuyigbe’s debut Fringe show offers us the pure promise of at least one honest piece of entertainment. WouId I pay to see a trained acrobat do a single backflip? No. Would I pay to see an untrained comedian do one? I think I would! The flip is both heavily teased and cleverly not made overly central to what is essentially an hour of imaginative, multimedia0-enhanced sketch comedy masquerading as a confessional solo show. In brief, Adejuyigbe wants to impress his ‘crush’ by doing said backflip, but she’s not here yet: she’s at a celebrity party he wasn’t invited to. And so he’s going to give us a presentation that runs the gamut from a parody of songs that parody ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ to an invitation for a member of the audience to punch him in the stomach. It’s all very DIY but it’s also slickly entertaining – I wouldn’t say it’s exactly apolitical but I would say that you can absolutely see why the man was hired to work on a quirky but populist multi Emmy-nominated comedy smash. As for the backflip - well, I’m not going to spoiler what happens exactly, but it manages to be both an allegory for artistic vulnerability and forging ahead against the odds… and a really intentionally stupid momen. You’ll see more self-consciously important comedy shows this Fringe, but few more out and out fun.

The surrealist comedy legend and prog lover returns to the West End with a new show in which he promises to celebrate flawed humanity in an age where things can increasingly be done better by machine.

Amy Gledhill’s second solo show won the main comedy award at the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. A brief initial Soho Theatre stint for her widely praised set revolving around questions of body image sold out instantly, but now she’s back with a bigger run in Soho’s biggest theatre.

This review is from the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The big word-of-mouth comedy hit at the 2024 Fringe is this outlandish yet perversely enjoyable late night gem from newcomer Huddersfield comic Joe Kent-Waters. Kind of like the degenerate, basement-raised offspring of ‘Phoenix Nights’ and ‘League of Gentlemen’ - not to mention Marlowe’s ‘Doctor Faustus’ - the nominal premise is that 24 years ago, Rotherham working men’s club owner Frankie made a pact with infernal powers: they offered him a wish and he asked that they preserve his club exactly how it was - immune to the outside world - until such time as they would return to drag him into hell. I would say that one hundred percent explains what happens in this show, but that’s kind of beside the point. Lumbering on in thick white face makeup that dissolves throughout the sweaty set, Monroe seems part infernal himself. Acting as emcee, he presides over a series of bizarre games, guest acts (all played by Kent-Waters) and audience interactions that do not in any way feel like they would have seemed current in the late ‘90s, or probably the early ’70s.  I was, er, delighted to find myself the participant in one of the interactions: early on Kent-Waters/Frankie – who is a pretty big lad it has to be said – demanded I hand over my wallet. Throughout the remainder of the night I was given a series of absurd, rigged opportunities to win it back – like guessing which marigold glove was filled with scampi fries. That sort of...

The time is finally nigh. After a huge rush all the way back in 2022 to bag tickets for Peter Kay’s huge comeback tour, his residency at the O2 arena is here. Last yeat the Bolton funny man began his first stand up tour in 12 years, and now to round it all off in epic style he’s pulling an Elvis-style move and doing a monthly residency at the O2 Arena – the first stand-up in the world to do so. The gigs will continue all the way into 2025, so even if you missed out on tickets the first time round there should be plenty of opportunity to catch the Lancastrian’s signature gags, guffaws and one-liners in the capital. 

15 acts compete in this heat of the 2013 Laughing Horse New Act of the Year competition, plus MC Lewis Bryan.