The best of the week's live comedy

The best of the week's live comedy, picked from the 5,010 events Chortle currently has listed. Use our search panel to check our full listings by date and region.

Sunday February 5

BATH: American musical comedian Stephen Lynch - who starred in the Broadway adaptation of The Wedding Singer - plays the Komedia, before moving on to Manchester, Birmingham, Brighton, Edinburgh and London.

LONDON: The cutting-edge Vaults Festival, embracing all manner of live arts, continues all week (except Monday). Tonight’s comedy pick is Joz Norris’s Blink, in which the performer puts aside silly comedy to execute the greatest magic trick of all time - making everyone blink in unison. Festival website.

Tuesday February 7

BRISTOL: Mock The Week regular Rhys James starts a UK tour of his latest show Spilt Milk, in which he reflects that now he’s in his 30s, he’s ‘free from the burden of his own potential, never to be called "young" for an achievement again, unless that achievement is dying.’ Rhys James tour dates.

BATH: All politicians are the puppets of vested interests, right? So who better to fix the broken system than an actual puppet? Edinburgh Comedy Award-nominated Randy Feltface sets out his manifesto in his new Feltopia tour, kicking off at Komedia tonight. Randy Feltface tour dates.

Wednesday February 8

LEICESTER: The city’s comedy festival kicks off today, celebrating its 30th anniversary with hundreds of performances over the next two-and-a-half weeks. Peter Pizzeria hosts a ‘first-night funnies’ gig tonight with Adele Cliff , Eric Rushton, Hannah Platt and Eshaan Akbar (pictured), while elsewhere there are works in progress from the likes of Alasdair Beckett-King and Elliot Steel. See the website for full details of the sizeable programme.

Thursday February 9

EDINBURGH: Antipodean comic Urzila Carlson starts a short UK tour. The stand-up – born in South Africa and now based between Australia and New Zealand – last year won the People’s Choice Award for most tickets sold at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. There, around 30,000 people saw her show, It’s Personal, which revolves around the idea that everyone overshares, but also wants to keep much of their lives private. Netflix released Carlson’s hour-long comedy special Overqualified Loser in 2020 and she has a hit podcast down under, That’s Enough Already!. Urzila Carlson tour dates.

CARDIFF: Britain’s Got Talent 2022 winner Axel Blake resumes his In Style tour after a Christmas break. Axel Blake tour dates.

LONDON: 21Soho launches a new monthly night raising funds and awareness of the Campaign Against Living Miserably’s live-saving mental health services. And the line-ups are impressive, starting with Felicity Ward, Nabil Abdulrashid, Rachel Fairburn, Tom Davis and Roha Sharma.

Friday February 10

LONDON: Hackney Comedy Experience comes back down to EartH with three comedians you might recognise from Taskmaster - Desiree Burch, Ed Gamble and Lou Sanders- and one who would make an excellent contestant: Edinburgh Comedy Award title-holder Sam Campbell.

Saturday February 11

NOTTINGHAM: There’s a strong bill at Just the Tonic at the Metronome tonight with handog Phil Ellis, everyman Scott Bennett, intense Dan Tiernan, ebuillient Lindsey Santoro, and offbeat Peter Brush. Tickets.

Published: 5 Feb 2023