The most popular comedy shows in London

Hugely influential silent US comic Doctor Brown – real name Phil Burgers, astonishingly – returns with his first proper new show in 12 years, a period that has seen him mentor and nurture the current impressive glut of LA-based US clown comics. ‘Beturns’ (all his shows begin with latter 'b') comes with no real promise beyond being the first Doctor Brown show in a decade – and that should be enough for most of us. 

Possibly stung by reviews that noted her 2022 debut Fringe show was unusual for not having a title, US comic Patti Harrison has really gone for it with this year’s name. That last show was wilfully confrontational, seemingly deliberately wildly overlength, and gave the air of being brilliant whenever she wanted it to be brilliant. The odds of this literally being about her boobs seems fairly low – expect pure chaos. Addendum: we saw the show at the 2023 Fringe and while we weren't actually allowed to write about it – it was a work in progress – we can confirm it was a thing of twisted brilliance after which you’ll never look at the cartoon mouse Stuart Little the same again.

The hugely successful, perennial cool comic follows up his West End run at the start of the year with a couple of dates at the prestigious Southbank Centre for his new live stand-up show in which he attempts to grapple with the fact that he recently concluded that he doesn’t like performing live stand-up shows. In ‘Hecklers Welcome’ Acaster talks through his phobia of performance, and as the title suggests, he promises he’ll give any heckler a fair hearing.

The grumpy everyman moves into the big leagues with a brace of almost sold-out dates at The O2 with his new show ‘Hustle’, which is, in essence, a consideration of whether there’s any point in being good in this life. Early reviews suggest the deal is essentially Ranganathan squaring up to middle-age in relatively predictable fashion, but it is by all accounts and agreeable evening of stand-up.

This review is from the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. ‘Actually, Good’ took home the top award at this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival, so the stakes were already high enough for Gillian Cosgriff’s ruthlessly cheery interactive hour. The show is also all about finding happiness in the mundane – which is a hard enough mission at the best of times. The Aussie performer structures her performance around a game she vox-pops to the (very willing) audience, where you’re asked to come up with a ranking of ten things you ‘like’, before she writes them down in her ‘Book of Good’. Often, these will be as simple as ‘wearing a wireless bra’ or ‘getting a USB in the socket for the first time’ – or, in Cosgriff’s case, ‘bus drivers waving at each other’.  Cosgriff’s manic nods of approval at people’s ‘likes’ occasionally feel disingenuous, especially when it came to some of the more bland responses. But, overall, the optimism is endearing. The real humour came in with her various flashback stories and musical numbers she weaved throughout the game with a zesty flair and considerable pace. (A hilarious longer sketch of an unfortunate phone meeting with a councillor is especially good). There is also a darker undercurrent, which functions to counter the stickier sweet shell and remind us that with good, there is always bad, and with life, there is always death (yes, she is really blunt).  Her game could have quickly become tired or cringe – or risk sounding like a particular

The time is finally nigh. After a huge rush all the way back in 2022 to bag tickets for Peter Kay’s huge comeback tour, his residency at the O2 arena is here. Last yeat the Bolton funny man began his first stand up tour in 12 years, and now to round it all off in epic style he’s pulling an Elvis-style move and doing a monthly residency at the O2 Arena – the first stand-up in the world to do so. The gigs will continue all the way into 2025, so even if you missed out on tickets the first time round there should be plenty of opportunity to catch the Lancastrian’s signature gags, guffaws and one-liners in the capital. 

You used to be able to set you clock by the the advent of a new Richard Herring live show: there would be one per year, every year, and he would take it to the Edinburgh Fringe. Now, though, it’s been a walloping six years since Herring has created one of his pedantic, surreal, invariably high concept offerings – in large part because after spending decades in the shadow of his former comedy partner Stewart Lee, he’s finally found something like mainsteam success with his Live from Leicester Square Theatre podcast series.  Now he returns to frontline service with a show about his 2021 brush with testicular cancer, which resulted in the removal of a the titular ball. 

15 acts compete in this heat of the 2013 Laughing Horse New Act of the Year competition, plus MC Lewis Bryan.