New Year’s Eve comedy in London

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe may be over but it continues to cast a shadow over London comedy – in a good way. As is the may our comedy ecosystem works, many of the best shows from the Fringe have made a swift transfer to Soho Theatre – you can catch both best comedy show winner Sam Nicoresti’s triumphant Baby Doomer, and best newcomer winner Toussaint Douglass’s Accessible Pigeon Material this month at the central London venue.  Post-Edinburgh triumphs are the biggest game in town, but they’re not the only one. The Greenwich Comedy Festival is London’s biggest and eschews fringey thrills for a satifying blast of massive comedy names. And speaking of which – controverisal US superstar Dave Chappelle is in town for a trio of short notice dates at the Forum. 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.

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.

This review is from the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Ultra-nerdy standup Kieran Hodgson – a man who once did an entire hour about the 1975 European referendum – recently had a cameo role in notorious superhero flop The Flash. In fact he spoke the first line in the movie. This is so prodigiously improbable that it’s no wonder it’s the jumping off point for his new show, Voice of America.  In fact the very English Hodgson makes relatively little hay out of his turn as the character dubbed Sandwich Guy, the drawling American barista who opens the doomed Ezra Miller flicks. Of course he talks about it a lot, and is as bemused as anyone that it happened. But there’s no behind-the-scenes goss or analysis of the film itself. Rather, some initial feedback over the quality of his accent is used as a jumping off point to explore his relationship with America as a whole. To a certain extent the point of Hodgson’s unswervingly high concept stand-up shows is that they’re not especially relatable: he’s an intensely warm and likeable performer, but he pursues odd obsessions, in an eccentric manner. His last, Made in Scotland, followed his relocation to Glasgow and his attempt to immerse himself in Scottish culture and language to such a ludicrous degree that it seemed calculated to wind up anyone Scottish in the audience (which is quite a lot of people at the Edinburgh Fringe). Voice of America, though, is very relatable: it’s about the complicated relationship we all have with the...

Each year, Time Out surveys thousands of people around the world to generate our annual ranking of the world’s greatest cities. For the first time this year, we set out to discover which locations were best rated by Gen Z by asking people under 30 what they thought about their city’s nightlife, food, culture, access to green spaces, and walkability. The result? Edinburgh was declared the UK’s best city for Gen Z, with London coming in at a not-too-shabby second place.  To mark London’s silver-medal placement, we asked Rory Marshall, a comedian who regularly performs in London (and has just finished his sold-out character comedy show Pathetic Little Characters at the Edinburgh Fringe,) to recommend his top four comedy nights in the city where you can chortle the night away for £15 and under. Life in London is spenny enough for the city’s twenty somethings. Here’s how to laugh for less. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Knock2Bag (@knock2bag) 1. Knock2Bag at Moth Club, Hackney  What is it? A live comedy night at the golden-hued Hackney Central trade hall, Moth Club, that plays host to packed line-ups full of big names and hot new acts.  Why Rory loves it? It’s the best comedy night in London. You might end up paying a little more for a ticket, but the standard and variety you get means it’s extremely good value. The night verges towards the ‘alternative’ side of comedy, but there’s always something for everyone, and you get to watch...

Edinburgh had its turn in August: in September the UK comedy world revolves around Greenwich. Across five nights and weekend afternoons in September, top-tier comedians will descend on the National Maritime Museum for London’s largest and longest-running comedy festival. Take your pick from stellar line-ups fronted by a sucession of proper comedy A-listers. Television faves Frankie Boyle and Sara Pascoe are probably the biggest names here, but you can’t swing a cat without hitting a famous comedian – they’ll be joined by the likes of Tim Key, Fern Brady, Bridget Christie, Nish Kumar, Phil Wang and Bridget Christie. Inevitably several of the shows are sold out, but really you can’t go wrong whatever you choose.  The setting is pretty spectacular, too – performances take place in an outdoor stage with the Royal Naval College as the backdrop. Get there early to take advantage of the food stalls, bars and breezy end-of-summer vibes.

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...

It was only a decade ago that US comedy megastar Dave Chappelle made his London stage debut – at a slew of dates that were generally hailed as a triumph. It’s hard to deny that in the years since, Chappelle’s edginess has curdled somewhat, not least because of his insistence on including transphobic jokes in basically everything he does now (he insists he’s not transphobic), plus that time he invited the loathsome Elon Musk out on stage to a hail of boos didn’t exactly help. Is he still one of the all time great comedians? Well probably, yeah, certainly when on form, and his dedication to playing relatively small venues – as opposed to hoovering up cash he doesn’t need on the area circuit – is heartening, even if the prices are eye-watering

This review is from the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In this sweet debut Fringe hour,  Lewisham-born-and-bred stand up Toussaint Douglass threatens us with 55 minutes of jokes about pigeons.  As a stickler for high-concept shows, I was a little disappointed to discover this was a colossal overstatement: there’s maybe 15 minutes on the ubiquitous winged rats. But they’re 15 good minutes, not least the show’s brilliantly chaotic cold open where Douglass makes one audience member drive a stuffed pigeon strapped to a remote control car around the room while others are made to try and feed it bread. For the most part Accessible Pigeon Material is a show about Douglass and his family, though he has a pleasingly idiosyncratic way of approaching what might otherwise be fairly humdrum material. There’s some great gags about Lewisham and some charming stuff about living with his ‘87-year-old flatmate’ (ie his nan, for whom pigeons were emblematic of the UK when she arrived with the Windrush generation). Best of all is a sequence where he roleplays his geezerish father while an audience member is forced to play the part of a younger Douglass trying to get his pathologically undemonstrative old man to say ‘I love you’. That this last gag isn’t pursued with quite the self lacerating viciousness it could be is indicative of the fact that Douglass basically seems like a really nice guy, making a show about the things that interest him (which includes pigeons). Perhaps he’d benefit...

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.

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...