The best of the week's live comedy

The best of the week's live comedy, picked from the 4,690 events Chortle currently has listed. Use our search panel to check our full listings by date and region.

Tuesday November 21

GLASGOW: Former Daily Show host Trevor Noah plays the Hydro ahead of three nights at London's O2 from Thursday. Trevor Noah tour dates and ticket links. An earlier performance of this Off the Record tour, recorded in Detroit, will drop as a Netflix special on December 19 entitled Where Was I, it was revealed on Friday.

Wednesday November 22

LONDON: BATSU! - a particularly rowdy mash-up of improv and Japanese punishment gameshows - starts a two-month residency at Underbelly Boulevard, the Edinburgh Fringe operator's permanent new venue in Soho, With comedians competing to avoid the likes of electric shocks, paintballs and a giant chicken, the format has already proved a cult hit in New York and Chicago. Read our review here

Thursday November 23

LONDON: Contemporary clown Dan Lees – winner of the Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality last year – brings to life bizarre record covers he’s found in charity shops in The Vinyl Countdown, a late-night show running at Soho Theatre tonight til Saturday.

Friday November 24

LONDON: American comic Fred Armisen is to play a string of UK dates this week. A Saturday Night Live cast member from 2002 to 2013, the comedian is co-creator and co-star of Portlandia, Documentary Now!, Los Espookys and Moonbase 8. His other acting credits include playing Russ Nightlife in Toast of Tinseltown and Mlepnos on Brooklyn Nine Nine. He is also the bandleader on NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers house band and received a Grammy Award nomination in 2019 for best comedy album for Standup for Drummers, which is also a Netflix special. The UK dates start at EartH in East London tonight and include Birmingham, Brighton, Margate, Bristol, Leeds, Glasgow and Liverpool.

LONDON: Bush Hall presents a typically strong bill out in West London, including provocateur Fin Taylor, idiot savant Ian Smith and dryly sarcastic Sindhu Vee.

BIRMINGHAM: A winning line-up at the Glee tonight and tomorrow features the very contrasting styles of the permanently furious Garrett Millerick and the silly prop comedy of Raymond & Mr Timpkins Revue, all ably overseen by Danny McLoughlin.

Published: 19 Nov 2023