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.

July is upon us and the spectre of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has hovered into view. Even if you have no intention of crossing the border this August, the gargantuan Scottish festival has a clear effect on the London comedy scene: this month our city is is groaning with work in progress previews of the Fringe’s likely highlights, and you can easily sample the best of the Fringe without going any further north than Soho Theatre. There’s also plenty more fun besides: Tim Minchin returns to live service, Stewart Lee moves to the Southbank Centre, and cult movie critic parody On Cinema has a string of live performances in Walthamstow. 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 best comedy clubs in London.The best new theatre shows to book for in London.

It’s my first visit to London’s newest theatre, and the press officer says she wants to hang about for a bit: ‘just until I see the look on your face when you see the auditorium for the first time’.  I immediately start worrying that I’ll offend everyone by not looking impressed enough, but it’s all good: my jaw duly thuds to the floor when I step into the main house of Soho Theatre Walthamstow.  The ‘original’ Soho Theatre on Dean Street in central London is a truly wonderful comedy, cabaret and theatre venue, but the building is not what you’d call architecturally noteworthy. Soho Theatre Walthamstow is a different matter entirely.  Photo: David Levene It has a long and complicated history, but the short version is that it opened in 1930 as The Granada, a 2,700-seat cinema on busy Hoe Street. It eventually fell into disrepair. Now it’s been born again as a 1,000-seat comedy and theatre venue. And it looks incredible. While the exterior has been given a clean, white, unobtrusive paint job that brings it somewhat in line with the Dean Street venue, the inside is like stepping back in time – a ravishing art deco masterpiece so instantly iconic that I feel a twinge of frustration that it’s just been sitting here unused for decades.  The slide into dereliction The original Granada cinema was a special place: built by prolific London theatre architect Cecil Masey and with interiors by the great stage designer Theodore Komisarjevsky, it was beloved by noted Leytonstone...

In his latest dizzyingly high concept show, avant comedy legend Stewart Lee bemoans his irrelevance – something he’s been been bemoaning for decades, often with zeitgeisty results – in a new show in which he promises to unleash a new, callously offensive stage persona to compete with the likes of Ricky Gervais and Dave Chappelle. The Man-Wulf is, apparently, ‘a tough-talking werewolf comedian from the dark forests of the subconscious who hates humanity’. Expect nuclear levels of irony. 

Most of us will have got to know Trevor Noah on American late-night talk show ‘The Daily Show’, but since he dropped that gig in 2022, there’s no denying that he’s still one of the world’s most famous comedians. Mixing comedy and satire with political commentary, the South African’s viral segments have built an adoring global fanbase And right now Noah is capitalising on that popularity with an intercontinental tour. The ‘Off the Record Tour’ comes to London for three shows following a date in Glasgow earlier this week. Glasgow and London will be his only UK stops on this tour. If you’re heading to see Trevor Noah at the O2 this week (or want to get yourself a ticket), here’s everything you need to know about the shows.   When is Trevor Noah at London’s O2 Arena?   The comedian is playing London on three dates: Thursday November 23, Friday November 24 and Saturday November 25.  What time will he come on stage?   The show started at 8pm on November 23, so it’s a fair guess to say it’ll likely start at 8pm on the following two dates, too.  What time do doors open at the London O2? Doors open at 6:30pm on all three dates. Are there any tickets left? Tickets are still available for the remaining two dates – but there aren’t many, and they aren’t in particularly good locations. Prices for remaining tickets start from about £52 and stretch all the way up to £152. Find out more on AXS here. What have reviews said about the show? In a four-star review for the Standard, Bruce...

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.

‘My main goal of the show, and my life, is to clear the name of Yoko Ono,’ says James Acaster, matter-of-factly, at the top of his show. Quite how we get there via examining his love of mariachi music, or the identities of Percy Pig’s mates, we’re not sure. But it all seems to make sense, at the time. Honest. Three solo shows in, and Acaster’s quickly becoming a reliable Fringe favourite. The Kettering-born comic is quiet, pedantic and refreshingly low-key. He's in no rush to get laughs, his shows are slow-burners, but every carefully chosen word or pause builds up to a sturdy, satisfying punchline. From Twister-etiquette to French rhyme structures, the Marks and Spencer-donning comic has a knack for flipping observational comedy on its head, studiously examining things most of us have dismissed as inconsequential. His confident, yet gawky, persona is wonderfully aloof, too. But what Acaster has mastered, which most comics fail at, is structuring an hour-long show. Seemingly throwaway jokes cleverly re-emerge, and no callbacks are crowbarred in. By the end of the hour you’re totally sucked into his minute, quizzical world, where Yoko Ono is addicted to biscuits, and Joe Bloggs is a prat. And it’s a wonderful world to visit. See 'James Acaster – Lawnmower' at the Edinburgh Fringe

Neon Nights is the gorgeous Soho Theatre Walthamstow’s monthly showcase spectactular and typiclaly features a big name headliner with stars ion various degrees of rising in support.  Upcoming shows include Phil Wang (June 27) with Catherine Bohart as host and Olga Koch, Jin Hao Li, Josh Pugh and Fatiha El-Ghorri supporting. On July 25 it’s Sam Campbell with Ania Magliano as host and support from Desiree Burch, Jessica Fostekew, Slim and Urooj Ashfaq. On Sep 26 it’s Bridget Christie with Kemah Bob as host plus Sindhu Vee, Jen Brister, Rhys James and Amy Gledhill.

A great pub in Angel that has a charming beer garden out front and an events space upstairs, which Angel Comedy calls home (as well as The Bill Murray down the road). There are excellent comedy line-ups here every night and they're always free, whether they're seasoned acts testing out new material or emerging comics giving it their all. 

Maybe it’s his law school training, but relative newcomer Ronny Chieng is already a consummate professional. The 27-year-old comic is blunt, full of bravado and not aiming to be liked; he’s got a job to do, and he’s putting forward a strong case. Born in Malaysia, based in Australia and raised in Singapore via the US, Chieng has a blurred sense of national identity. ‘I belong nowhere,’ he says, explaining that Westerners just see his Chinese roots, and back home he’s considered ‘the whitest guy in Malaysia’. But Chieng feels passionately about his heritage and aims to change the opinion that Chinese people aren’t cool. ‘Cool’ isn’t exactly how you’d describe Chieng; he’s a permanently pissed-off germaphobe. But he smartly attacks Chinese stereotypes while mockingly reinforcing them, and just when you think he’s slipping into cliché, he’ll flip the joke on its head and find a fresh, sharp punchline. Not that race is the only subject Chieng’s an expert on. He’s a master BitTorrent user, a penis-hygiene specialist and regular IT support for his mum. We’ve all heard young comics mock their parents’ inability to grasp technology, but Chieng’s extended routine about providing tech help over the phone wins through his outward frustration. It’s this honest indifference to being liked that makes Chieng stand out. Refreshingly, he’s neither charmless nor charming. All that matters is there’s sharp comedic mind at work here – why should we need anything more? See 'Ronny Chieng – The...