The most popular comedy shows in London

Jordan Gray’s last show Is It a Bird? – an ebulliant set that featured highly original musings on both superheroes and being transgender – propelled the comic’s star to new hights. Inevitably it also aroused the ire of the not inconsiderable number of people in this country who dislike trans people. We don’t yet know a huge amount about the follow up, but the general inference is it’s about the backlash to Is It a Bird? and also cowboys. Whatever the case, it’ll probably a) include songs b) be very funny.

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. 

After a lengthy run last year at the Hammersmith Apollo, the superstar stand-up calls in at The O2 for a night as the climax of his In the Moment world tour. It’s a new set, but the same old Mo, mixing his big-hearted, ultra-relatable yarns with tales from the world of showbiz he now finds himself embroiled in. If you want to see him in a more intimate setting, he’d recording his podcast Beginning, Middle and End at Up the Creek in Greenwich earlier in the month.

As far as feelgood events go, it doesn’t get much more pure than top-tier stand-up comedy that raises money for those in need. This comedy night at Islington’s beautiful Union Chapel is presented by No Direction Home – a stand-up comedy programme by Counterpoints Arts which mentors comics from refugee and migrant backgrounds. The line-up is still to be announced, but you can expect big laughs, fresh voices and fascinating stories. All proceeds will go to communities in Congo, Ethiopia and Sudan, and you can add a pre-show dinner to your booking at Margins Café, based at the Chapel, which works with people who face homelessness and crisis. 

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