Ross Noble and Viggo Venn head out on tour

The week's best live comedy

The best of the week's live comedy, picked from the 5,002 events Chortle currently has listed. Use our search panel to check our full listings by date and region.

Sunday October 22

LONDON: Holby City and Strictly star Chizzy Akudolu, sprinter Dwain Chambers, Channel 4 F1 presenter Steve Jones and EastEnders’ Suzette Llewellyn try stand-up for the first time in a fundraising gig for the Comedy Store tonight. The charity helps vulnerable people use the power of comedy to improve their social and life skills. And the newbies will be ably assisted at the Backyard Comedy Club in Bethnal Green by pros Adam Bloom and Curtis Walker, who definitely know what they are doing.

LONDON: There's a mighty fine line-up at Up The Creek in Greenwich as Daniel Kitson, Ian Smith, Nish Kumar and Celya AB try out new stuff as part of the weekly Sunday Special show. Tickets

Monday October 23

MILTON KEYNES: After winning Britain's Got Talent with his explosion of hi-vis jackets, balloons, and joyous idiocy, Norwegian comic-clown Viggo Venn embarks on a UK tour to prove that he's now what he always wanted to be… a British Comedian. Viggo Venn tour dates.

LONDON: Olga Koch's Prawn Cocktail, a wild sex-positive ride though her reckless life, with a surprisingly vulnerable undertone, comes to the Soho Theatre for a week. Review

LONDON: Late Nigh Mash's Rachel Parris performs a greatest hits show, called Fool's Gold, which she's recording for future release. There are two tapings at Lafayette, a new live music venue in Kings Cross, at 6pm (Tickets) and 8.45pm (Tickets)

Wednesday October 25

TELFORD: Ross Noble starts a new stand-up tour - his 21st, incredibly. Jibber Jabber Jamboree has 53 dates of nonsense, stretching to March, including a three-night homecoming run at Newcastle’s O2 City Hall and two performances at London’s Palladium. Ross Noble tour dates.

Thursday October 26

DUNDEE: It's the first night of the Big Fab Comedy Show, a new line-up gig touring Scotland put together by the Gilded Balloon. At the Whitehall Theatre tonight - and Galashiels Volunteer Hall tomorrow and The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, on Saturday - are Thanyia Moore, Chris Forbes, Rosco McClelland, Liam Farrelly and Catherine Bohart. A different line-up tours in a couple of weeks.

LONDON: Sophie Duker has attracted a top-notch line-up for her Wacky Racists night (for 'performers of colour and under-represented allies') at the swanky Hackney Empire tonight. They include Ghosts star Kiell Smith-Bynoe, expert storyteller Desiree Burch, TV's Jamali Maddix, wildly talented trans comic Jordan Gray (ahead of her own tour gig at the Bloomsbury Theatre tomorrow) and fast-rising livewire Su Mi.

LONDON: Terrible, but cheerily unaware, novelist Christopher Bliss gets into the Halloween spirit with a Spookfest at Hackney's Moth Club, where he's aided by Emma Sidi, Lou Sanders and Lucy Pearman.

LONDON: Kyle Gordon is a New York based comedian who boasts almost a billion views across Tik Tok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. And his first UK tour comprises just three dates: Leicester Square Theatre tonight, Home in Manchester on the Sunday and the Glasgow Glee on Monday.

Friday October 27

CARMARTHEN: The town's showground hosts a one-night Festival of Comedy tonight, featuring super-energetic Russell Kane, delightful musical duo, Flo and Joan, the haplessly middle class Hal Cruttenden, improv kings The Noise Next Door and rising star Anna Thomas.

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Published: 22 Oct 2023