New Year’s Eve comedy in London

London has the biggest and best comedy scene in the world, so if you love a good laugh (or a good heckle) you're in the right place. From tiny basements and rooms above pubs to boats to huge venues, there’s comedy in the capital for comedians (and audiences) of all shapes and sizes. But not all spaces are created equal. Avoid getting sucked into a rip-off joint with a vibe that's deader than Monty Python's notorious parrot with our list of London’s liveliest and best comedy nights and clubs. Whether you're up for try-out nights at pocket money prices or massive gigs from names off the telly, here's where to look for your next comedy night out. RECOMMENDED: Here are the very best cinemas in London.

There are far, far too many one-off, multi-performer comedy nights in London for us to compile a single coherent page with our favouites on, which is entirely to London’s credit. So do check individual bills of comedy clubs online for that sort of thing. But if you’re looking for an individual comedian with a full headline show then this page is here to compile the Time Out editorial team’s top choices, often with our reviews from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The big London comedy news this month is the launch of a live immersive version of beloved comedy gameshow Taskmaster – will Alex Horne’s eccentric brainchild be as funny when tackled by your or I and not actual comedians? Soon we’ll find out! Plus heavy hitters Mo Gilligan, Emma Sidi, Sophie Duker and Ania Magliano. The best comedy clubs in London. The best new theatre shows to book for in London.

Rose Matafeo is just like the rest of us. She uses her Notes app for just about everything: recipe ideas, drafts of her will, one-liners. She hates Taylor Swift. She struggles to get her head around the brainrot internet vernacular of Gen Z. And it’s this relatability, delivered with such a natural, frantic rhythm, that will have you smiling and nodding along like a bobble-head cat for a full 60 minutes.  The Kiwi creator of beloved sitcom ‘Starstruck’ and winner of the 2018 Comedy Award at the Fringe takes an introspective, confessional approach to her latest show. She contemplates her twenties, from the boarding school men she dated to being an introvert in London, she lurches into accents and light self depreciation. She examines her own love life, following all of its tragic characters via being dumped in your thirties and the weird world of online relationship coaches – covering subjects which could endanger coming across as bland or clichéd, but are delivered with such zeal and intelligence that it feels like you’re hearing about them for the first time.  It occasionally lurches into rushed moments of chaos which don’t allow space for material to land – and a few comparisons, like those of Harry Potter and Mario Kart, fell a bit flat. But for the most part, Matafeo is truly very funny. The hour takes on an arc, tricking the audience and swiftly, slyly, returning to its core messages. Fierce, clever and unashamedly ordinary, it’s a celebration of being your true, unapolo

Whether you’ve been a fan since the days of That Peter Kay Thing or you’ve recently discovered his sketches on TikTok, the chances are you’re familiar with Peter Kay, one of the UK’s most beloved comedians. And that’s shown by the sheer number of gigs he’s playing this year – in fact, Kay is the first ever artist to perform a monthly residency at Greenwich’s massive O2 Arena. A heck of a lot of Londoners are going to get to see Peter Kay live over the next 12 months, and those gigs continue this weekend. This Saturday (January 6), Kay takes to the O2 as part of his first tour in 12 years. Here’s everything you need to know about the show – and all the ones after that. RECOMMENDED: How to get tickets for Peter Kay’s 2023 tour  When is Peter Kay at London’s O2 Arena? Peter Kay’s next show at the O2 is on Saturday, January 6 2024. After that, he’ll play loads more dates. Here are those in full: February 24, 2024 March 23, 2024 April 20, 2024 May 4, 2024 June 2, 2024 July 13, 2024 August 10, 2024 September 7, 2024 October 8, 2024 November 16, 2024 December 5. 2024 January 25, 2025 February 22, 2025 March 20, 2025 April 4, 2025 What time will he come on stage? Kay is set to take to the stage at 8pm. What time do doors open at the London O2? Doors will open at 6:30pm and it should end by the O2’s curfew, which is 11pm.  Are there any tickets left? According to ticketing platform AXS, there are still some tickets left for the January 6 show. How much are tickets?  You can nab

This review is from the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe. ‘So much to catch up on!’ gasps Ania Magliano at the start of her latest set and yes, that’s very much how it feels.  ‘Forgive Me Father’ is the young rising star’s third Edinburgh show in three years and her great gift is that where so many comedy sets can feel thematically laboured, Magliano really does come across as a pal getting us up to speed on whatever’s been going on in her life. Last year’s ‘I Can’t Believe You’ve Done This’ was about a catastrophic haircut she got. ‘Father Forgive Me’ is kind of about moving in with her boyfriend, finding it weird, and concluding she needs her coil removed to sort her mood out. (Her father is touched on, though one suspects the show evolved after she came up with the title). As with ‘I Can’t Believe You’ve Done This’, Magliano excels at making herself both the hero and the villain of her own superficially simple but in fact exquisitely crafted stories. Teething problems when moving in with someone new are understandable. But she manages to to be both essentially relatable and to steadfastly painting herself as kind of a dick: from an opening section in which she stews over the fact her boyfriend dared to go out with somebody else for eight years, to her unreasonably snapping at him for trying to be nice to her, to say nothing of her unilateral, medically unsupported decision that her coil is the issue, she is relatable but not necessarily in a way we’re entirely proud of. Not toxic or

In no sense is Emma Sidi actually Sue Gray. She doesn’t look like Sue Gray. She doesn’t sound like Sue Gray. She is completely the wrong age to be the ex-civil servant now Downing Street chief of staff, something she doubles down on by providing nonsensical biographical details like the fact that landfill indie also rans The Wombats played at her freshers’ week.  And yet… Emma Sidi is Sue Gray. The Woking-raised comic absolutely 100 percent commits to the bit here: bar a couple of batshit Spanish interludes (when she is technically still being Sue Gray) then this whole show is performed entirely in one character. Her Gray is a lairy, boozy Essex Girl type who nonetheless spends the entire show regaling us with a life story that does by and large correspond to Gray’s. Or at least it does when it comes to the bigger picture stuff. She worked with Rishi Sunak, an incorrigible office prankster who Gray was both irritated by and had a crush on. She had a frosty relationship with Cressida Dick, who didn’t lend her a tampon one time. She was blown away by Keir Starmer, who she describes as ‘dripping with rizz’. Also she is occasionally menaced by an elf who wants to destroy her electronic devices, something she finds so traumatic she can only discuss it in Spanish. It isn’t really satire: part of the point is that we don’t really know very much about Sue Gray, therefore Sidi isn’t really sending her up. A few tart asides apart, it’s not even particularly political, with thornier stu

As the unofficial comedy capital of the world, London's comedy circuit doesn't take a break. There are stand-up shows seven days a week, from early evening through to the small hours. To help you plan your week of witticisms, here's a nifty calendar of regular comedy shows in London.

Bete noir of the British right and all round affable bloke Kumar returns with a new stand-up show and tour in which he does in fact attempt to kill the vibe via jokes about climate change, income equality and British politics. There’s just a single date in September though he’ll be back for a couple of shows at Ally Pally in November.

The sharp-as-nails ‘Taskmaster’ champion returns to standup duties with this new show. Sophie Duker’s not telling us much about ‘But Daddy I Love You’, but it has a cute poster image and she describes it as ‘delusional’. Whatever the case, expect entertainment and provocation in roughly equal measures.

People on TikTok are going wild for a loo in London that is basically a miniature nightclub. In the video, which has had more than 800,000 views, a chic mirrored black-and-gold bathroom appears. But after slamming a big red button, lights start flashing in rainbow colours and the loo starts pumping out Rihanna banger ‘Don’t Stop the Music’.  Leonie Hanne, who posted the viral TikTok, wrote: ‘Toilet goals! Only in London!’ People are living for it. One person commented: ‘That’s so cool!!’ while another added: ‘I would spend my night in the bog.’ @leoniehanne Toilet goals! Only in London! 😬 #london #londonlife ♬ original sound - Leonie Hanne If you want to check out the diddy disco for yourself, it’s the toilet at Rika Moon London, a Japanese fusion restaurant in Notting Hill. Perfect for dancing off all those rice calories.  This isn’t London’s only party toilet. At Boom Battle Bar in Oxford Circus we’ve heard there’s a magic button that blasts out ‘La Bamba’ in the bogs. For huns who spend the whole evening making new besties in the bogs, this is a dream come true.  Could this be a rising trend? Will every bathroom in the capital come kitted out with disco lights and big speakers? Could be great, but think of the queues… Rika Moon, 120 Kensington Park Rd, W11 2PW. A literal party in a toilet: A nightclub in a toilet has reopened in London. London restaurants open on Christmas Day.