The best of the week's live comedy

The best of the week's live comedy, picked from the almost 7,000 events Chortle currently has listed. Use our search panel to check out our full listings by date and region.

Monday April 4

LONDON: The Backyard Comedy Club in Bethnall Green hosts a Stand Up With Ukraine benefit for medical charity Doctors of the World, featuring Richard Stott, Rob Deering, Seann Walsh, Sooz Kempner, Toussaint Douglass, William Stone, Mark Cram and Tatty Macleod. It’s also being live-streamed by NextUp. Stott organised the event and said: ‘When the situation in Ukraine started unfolding I felt completely helpless, particularly as a comedian a crisis like this make your job feel even sillier than it is usually... and that's quite silly. I'm not working out diplomatic negotiations, I'm not medically trained and ready to go out and help but I can make people laugh. If I can turn that laughter into funding a great cause then I've helped, so why not?’

LONDON: You Dress Funny! is a night where comedy meets fashion, hosted by Darren Harriott and Rachel Fairburn. Tonight, comedians Josh Jones, Dane Baptiste, Tiff Stevenson and Esther Manito perform wearing clothing they wouldn’t normally wear. breaking their comfort zones. Audience members at 21 Soho are also encouraged to bring some of their biggest fashion mistakes for Darren and Rachel to critique.

Tuesday April 5

LONDON: Max & Ivan, creators and stars of ITV2’s new wrestling comedy Deep Heat, embark on their Max & Ivanthology, performing all their previous live shows at the Pleasance. They will try to remember three of them this week, starting with a Holmes And Watson pastiche today, and others later in the month,

LONDON: Talent scouts from Just For Laughs are in town this week, checking out British comedians who could play the prestigious Montreal festival in future. The first is at the Bill Murray at 9pm tonight, hosted by Jen Brister.

Wednesday April 6

DARLINGTON: The Hilarity Bites Comedy Club takes over the Hippodrome for three nights this week. Today it’s a Britain’s Got Talent line-up of Daliso Chaponda, Nabil Abdulrashid, Steve Royle and Danny Poshll; on Friday it’s the impressive line-up of Bethany Black, Hal Cruttenden, Lucy Porter, Ria Lina and Laura Lexx and equally strong on Saturday with Angelos Epithemiou, Lauren Pattison, Paul Sinha, Tom Houghton, Hayley Ellis.

LONDON: The second Just For Laughs Showcase is at the Boat Show, the comedy club aboard the Tattershall Castle steamer permanently moored at Embankment. It features Aaron Simmonds, Babatunde Aléshé, Erika Ehler, Eshaan Akbar, Fatiha El-Ghorri, Helen Bauer, Joe Sutherland, Kai Samra, Tom Lucy, Toussaint Douglass, Finlay Christie, Naomi Cooper, Lara Ricote, Tatty Mcleod

LONDON: String v Spitta, in which Ed MacArthur and Ghosts star Kiell Smith-Bynoe play warring children’s entertainers from different sides of the tracks, returns to the Soho Theatre for a week-and-a-half-long run. Review.

Thursday April 7

NOTTINGHAM: National treasure and Dame Edna creator Barry Humphries promises an ‘intimate, confessional, revelatory trip’ through his colourful life and theatrical career with his new touring show The Man Behind the Mask. It kicks off with three nights at the Playhouse from today. Barry Humphries tour dates.

LONDON: American comic Allan Havey plays a rare UK date at the Museum Of Comedy. As well as being an acclaimed comic – we called him ‘darkly funny’ in a four-star review in 2018 – he is also an accomplished actor, starring as Lou Avery in Mad Men among credits that include, Hail Caesar!, The Office and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

LONDON: There’s a good bill at the Comedy Store this weekend, even by its own high standards, with Britain’s Got Talent’s Daliso Chaponda, manic Helen Bauer, smartly silly Ian Smith, high-octane Thanyia Moore and suave veteran Tom Stade.

Friday April 8

BRIGHTON: The weather is - hopefully - getting better, so time for a new season of Stand Up Under The Stars at Brighton Open Air Theatre, featuring the class acts of Ivo Graham, Olga Koch, Rhys James and Chortle’s newly-crowned best newcomer winner, Celya AB. Tickets

LONDON: There’s a treat at Bush Hall in Shepherds Bush with the inventive duo of Milton Jones and Simon Munnery joined by the astute observational comedy of Jessica Fostekew and stereotype shatterer Fatiha El-Ghorri. Tickets

LONDON: Jeff Innocent, current holder of the British Comedian of the Year title, the most financially valuable in stand-up, performs at the Banana Cabaret at the Bedford in Balham this weekend alongside the skilled Laura Lexx and Mike Gunn, celebrated for piling tag lines high in his carefully constructed set.

Saturday April 9

LONDON: The Musical Comedy Awards reach their climax at the Bloomsbury Theatre. Finalists are Amy Webber, Simon David, Nikola McMurtrie, The Sugarcoated Sisters, Kayleigh Jones, Jeff Japers, Joseph Emslie, Talal Karkouti, Chris Timoney, Kit Sullivan, Abigail Carter-Simpson and Orlando Gibbs, while the show features a headline set from Isy Suttie. Tickets

Published: 3 Apr 2022