The best of the week's live comedy

Monday March 6

CARDIFF: The Chortle Student Comedy Award continues apace with a visit to Cardiff University Student Union tonight. Surely better than some chancer called Ricky Gervais at the Motorpoint Arena. We then visit Warwick University on Tuesday and the Kao Tao bar in Fallowfield, Manchester, on Wednesday.

LONDON: Rachel Parris starts a three-night Soho Theatre run of Best Laid Plans, a sweet, charming but substantial show about her brush with depression when she realised the perfect life she had envisaged might not be attainable, and plenty more besides. Review.

Tuesday March 7

LONDON: They are a day early, but a top-of-her-game Sara Pascoe headlines a strong International Women’s Day bill at the intimate Star Of Kings pub in Kings Cross. Ellie Taylor, Grainne Maguire and Hatty Ashdown also performed, introduced by comic, columnist and author Viv Groskop.

Wednesday March 8: International Women’s Day

LONDON: Oxfam and Comic Relief have put together a strong line-up for this special show, which is also being filmed for a DVD release. Queens of the circuit Bridget Christie and Shappi Khorsandi are joined by rising stars Evelyn Mok, Athena Kugblenu and Mae Martin, with sketch offerings from Birthday Girls and Massive Dad. It’s all at the Leicester Square Theatre from 7.30pm.

LONDON: The Bill Murray hosts an eclectic line-up of female comics from the socially astute Kiri Pritchard McLean to the unhinged Lou Sanders. Add in Sweden’s Evelyn Mok (doubling up tonight), New Zealand’s Rose Matafeo and Phoebe Walsh from sketch group Oyster Eyes, and you have a solid bill put together by the folk at Berk's Nest comedy.

BROMSGROVE : Stockport’s most vivacious housewife, Barbara Nice, brings her feelgood party spirit to the Artix, headlining over up-and-coming comedians Lindsey Santoro and Eleanor Tiernan, and compere Maureen Younger. Here is Barbara’s creator Janice Connolly talking about her career at the recent Leicester Comedy Festival.

BRIGHTON: Tiff Stevenson, who you may have seen on Mock the Week and/or People Just Do Nothing, is touring the UK with her show all about lucky number Seven, and it hits the Komedia tongiht.

Thursday March 9

GLASGOW: The city’s 18-day comedy festival kicks off tonight; and our recommendation for starters is Josie Long’s Something Better, about a Remainer trying to find hope in a post-Brexit world. She’s at the Stand at 8.30pm.

Friday March 10

GLASGOW: Tonight’s festival pick is Scott Agnew’s brutally frank, vividly graphic and very funny stand-up show I've Snapped My Banjo String, Let's Just Talk, which is at the Blackfriars Basement at 7.30pm.

SEVENOAKS: Superior comedy - in both sense of the word - from Simon Evans rounds up a show at the Dutton Green Social club that features the life-affirming stand-up of Lynn Ruth Miller, the vocally talented Stefano Paolini and a rare circuit appearance from dry-but-daft Stan Stanley.

BOWNESS-ON-WINDERMERE: Dave Spikey celebrates 30 years in comedy with his new tour, Juggling On A Motorbike, though it rarely ventures out of his heartland of Lancashire, Cheshire and Yorkshire. Dates.

Saturday March 11

GLASGOW: Richard Gadd’s intensely cathartic Monkey See Monkey Do – winner of the Edinburgh Comedy Award last summer – is reprised at the Stand, offering n unexpected look at what it means to be a man.

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Published: 5 Mar 2017