The comedy week ahead

The comedy week ahead…

Sunday May 17

ONLINE: Following the success of his iPlayer-only referendum show (which attracted 715,000 requests) Frankie Boyle returns with a similarly transmitted Election Autopsy, featuring stand-up, discussion and audience interaction about the recent poll (remember that?). His guests include Sara Pascoe and Katherine Ryan. And maybe if he's a well-behaved boy Frankie will be allowed back on real TV one day. Available from 9pm

LIVE IN LONDON: It's billed as A Well Known Comedian And Some Colleagues, but frankly all the comics on the bill of this excellent benefit at the Leicester Square Theatre deserve to be well-known to the comedy-savvy. The line-up raising money for the Neuro Foundation is Adam Buxton, Adam Hess, Bec Hill, Benny Boot, Darren Walsh, Kevin Eldon, Marcel Lucont, Mat Ewins, Nick Helm, Pete Johansson, Sofie Hagen, Tony Law, and MC Michael Legge.

Monday May 18

LIVE IN LONDON: We've seen hundreds of young new acts, so you don't have to. But now we're down to the best two dozen, to be showcased in the two semi-finals of the Chortle Student Comedy Awards tonight and tomorrow. Who could be the future of comedy? Come and find out at the Tattershall Castle on the London Embankment. Tonight's show is hosted by Ray Peacock (Tickets), tomorrow's by Ed Gamble (Tickets)

LIVE IN BLYTH: Comic Kai Humphries's Chortle-award winning club Punch Drunk offers the best of the circuit to Northumberland tonight, with David Hadingham, Gavin Webster and Tom Stade.

Tuesday May 19

RADIO: Mark Steel returns for a sixth series of In Town, in which the comic travels around the country performing a bespoke stand-up show based around the history and customs of his destination. In the first programme, Mark visits the Lancashire seaside town of Fleetwood, the home of Fisherman's Friend. Radio 4, 6.30pm

Wednesday May 20

RADIO: Last year's Edinburgh Comedy Award winner John Kearns gets his own radio series, four quarter-hour vignettes from his strange mind. Radio 4, 11pm

LIVE IN LONDON: Laugh Till It Hurts at the Bloomsbury Theatre is raising honk for Cancer Research with the best in the new wave of stand-up: James Acaster, John Robins, Paul Foot, Robin Ince, Sara Pascoe, Tony Law and Terry Alderton's new double act (not with his own id this time, but with an actual other human), The Two Johns.

Thursday May 21

LIVE IN STRATFORD-UPON-AVON: It's the opening gala for the five-night Comedy Hullabaloo festival, taking place in a couple of wooden Spiegeltents on the banks of the Avon. Opening up the funnies are Hal Cruttenden, Russell Kane, Zoe Lyons, Joe Lycett and Phil Wang.

LIVE IN MANCHESTER: The Comedy Store has possibly the most intelligent line-up of any club this weekend, as the bright duo of Paul Sinha (he of The Chaser fame) and Adam Bloom start tonight, then are joined on Friday and Saturday by similarly smart stand-up Josh Howie and the quick-thinking, and very energetic, improvisers Noise Next Door.

FILM: There must be something in the air, after Russell Brand's anti-capitalist film The Emperor's New Clothes and Jon Stewart's Rosewater about the Tehran regime, another comic releases a movie with a social conscience. This time it's Omid Djalili, who is one of the executive producers of We Are Many, about the 2003 marches in which up to 30 million people took the the streets of nearly 800 cities around the world to protest the Iraq War. It's out in cinemas today.

Friday May 22

LIVE IN BIRMINGHAM: 'Chap hop' pioneer Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer shows that 'ukulele' needn't be a dirty word (or more precisely 'banjolele') with his civilised, cheery raps at the Old Joint Stock Theatre:

Saturday May 23

LIVE IN LEEDS: The Leeds comedy festival kicks off with a trio of shows at The Wardrobe: Tony Jameson in Football Manager Ruined My Life at 3pm; a great double-bill of Tom Stade and Mick Ferry at 5pm, then Storage Hunter auctioneer Sean Kelly with his stand-up show at 8pm.

LIVE IN LONDON: Political comic Bill Maher, scourge of religion, pops into the Hammersmith Apollo for a rare gig. Tickets

Published: 17 May 2015