Ben Elton preps his new tour

The week's best live comedy

The best of the week's live comedy, picked from the thousands of events Chortle currently has listed – but a relatively muted week following the excesses of the Edinburgh Fringe. Use our search panel to check our full listings by date and region.

Sunday August 25

EAST GRINSTEAD: Ben Elton's doing a work in progress of his new tour Authentic Stupididy – a reversal of Artificial Intelligence at the Chequer Mead Theatre before kicking off properly at the Leeds Barbican on Sunday. It's the first tour for the original face of the 1980s alternative comedy scene in five years –and only his second in 20. Ben Elton tour dates

Tuesday August 27

LONDON: Fresh from his Edinburgh Comedy Award best newcomer nomination, Demi Adejuyigbe begins a five-night Soho Theatre run of Demi Adejuyigbe Is Going To Do One (1) Backflip, an excellent collection of fun and nonsense before the American comic ponders what it is that make him want to show off so much. Review

LONDON: Comic, talk-show host and star of Derry Girls, Tommy Tiernan brings his wild, uninhibited and fiercely physical stand-up to the Soho Theatre, also running until Saturday.

LONDON: Another transfer from Edinburgh, US comic Caitlin Cook brings The Writing on the Stall, a musical set in a dive bar toilet and based on graffiti she's seen in such places, to The Bill Murray. It runs until Sunday, but with tomorrow off.

Friday August 30

LONDON: Fresh from her Netflix special The Twist…? She’s Gorgeous, Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Catherine Cohen plays the Shepherds Bush Empiure with Come For Me, an glamorous, horny musical exploration of what it means to enter your thirties as a woman online. Tickets

LONDON: Vir Das continues his assault on the UK circuit, having already conquered his native India, with his new show about freedom, happiness, democracy, censorship, dead snakes, double arrests, Emmy wins, animal rescues, alleged mental well-being, and very viral degradation. It's on at Soho Theartre tonight, and twice at the Union Chapel in Islington tomorrow. Read our 4.5-star review from the Edinburgh Fringe here

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Published: 25 Aug 2024