The week's best live comedy

The best of the week’s live comedy. These are outdoor and socially-distanced gigs. Check with venues about party size restrictions. Most shows require advance booking.

Sunday September 20

WARWICK: An impressive setting for an outdoor gig as the castle plays host to Michael Odewale, Olga Koch, Phil Wang and Jenny Bede in the latest of its high-end comedy shows. The £50 ticket price includes food and admission to the historic tourist attraction.

TRING: TV regulars Ed Byrne and Shappi Khorsandi join Steve Best, who appeared on last year’s Britain’s Got Talent, and MC Paul ‘Silky’ White for an outdoor afternoon gig organised by the local Get Stuffed comedy club at the Court Theatre.

Monday September 21

LONDON: Happy Mondays is the latest comedy club to return to the capital, with social distancing of course. Smack The Pony’s Fiona Allen joins Lou Sanders, Tom Ward, Toussaint Douglass and MC Sion James at the Amersham Arms in New Cross.

BRIGHTON: The life of local comedy hero Max Miller is examined in the play The Cheeky Chappie, running all week at the Warren Outdoors and featuring a tour-de-force performance by Jamie Kenna. Read our review of the show here.

Tuesday September 22

LONDON: Taskmaster’s Alex Horne brings his musical colleagues The Horne Section - as seen as the house band on Peter Crouch’s Save Our Summer on BBC One earlier in the year - to the newly reopened Clapham Grand for a night of comedy set to jaunty tunes. Warning: Will contain puns.

LONDON: It’s a rather strange final for Funny Women, with a sparse, socially distanced audience in the Comedy Store - the venue’s first gig since… you know. Others will be watching the livestream at home. Finalists are Izzy Askwith, Naomi Cooper, Katie Green, Ania Magliano, Mary O’Connell, Fiona Ridgewell, Christina O’Sullivan, Eryn Tett and MC is Jayde Adams.

BRISTOL: Another Taskmaster favourite, Phil Wang, gets laconic in the Lakota tonight, with MC Mark Olver overseeing proceedings.

Wednesday September 23

LONDON: A reimagined Greenwich Comedy Festival, always an autumnal highlight of the capital’s comedy calendar, kicks off in the grounds of the National Maritime Museum. Dylan Moran, Desiree Burch, Isy Suttie and Ed Gamble play the sold-out opening night gig, with Alan Davies, Bill Bailey and Dara O’Briain among the headliners over the rest of the week…

Thursday September 24

MARLOW: The Buckinghamshire town’s Picnic In The Park festival has attracted some top-drawer names, with Desiree Burch, Mark Watson, Reginald D Hunter and Tom Allen tonight; and Angela Barnes, Dara O Briain, Josh Widdicombe and Mark Watson tomorrow. EVENt CANCELLED

Friday September 25

BRIGHTON: Adam Kay will regale the audience at The Warren Outdoors with hilarious, and sometimes heartbreaking, stories from his NHS days in This is Going to Hurt tonight.

LONDON: There’s a good line-up in the courtyard of the Battersea Arts Centre with Fern Brady, Kai Samra, Mae Martin and Thanyia Moore

Saturday September 26

LONDON: As a political comic, Andrew Maxwell won’t be short of things to discuss when he headlines The Boat Show aboard the Tattershall Castle paddle steamer moored next to Embankment Tube station. Fine support comes from Nathan Caton and Thanyia Moore (again!)

Published: 20 Sep 2020