New Year’s Eve comedy in London

London’s Pokémon fans have been totally spoiled this year. In honour of the brand’s 30th birthday, and Pokémon GO’s 10th anniversary, there have been all sorts of Poké-themed events taking place. In January, there was the rare merch drop at the Natural History Museum, followed by the Pokémon Europe International Championships at the ExCeL in February. April saw the opening of the ‘Pokopia Garden’ in west London and in August, there was the huge Team Rocket-themed event in Potters Field Park. And there’s still more to come.  Now, Pokémon has partnered with London’s Science Museum and the European Space Agency to create an exciting new free trail. The Pokémon Space Trail has been designed to coincide with World Space Week. That’s happening from October 4 until October 10, but the event will run until January. Here’s what you can expect.  First, you pick up a free copy of the trail from the Energy Hall, then you set off on your expedition. As you wander through the museum’s galleries, you’ll come across the likes of Pikachu, Lunatone, Arceus and more, alongside large-scale installations and real stories of European space science and exploration.  In the Power Up gallery (a space filled with 160 functioning video games and consoles), you can try your hand at retro games like Pokémon Snap on Nintendo 64, Pokémon Battle Revolution on Wii as well as more up-to-date ones like Pokémon Legends: Z-A on Switch 2. If you’re a keen Pokémon GO-er, the trail will also offer the chance to...

Nominated for Best Newcomer at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Comedy Awards, Freddie Meredith’s Need a Light? is a by all accounts delightful hour of sketch comedy in which Meredith plays a nerdy, wannabe hip loser who spends 60 endearing minutes trying to start conversations with randoms in the smoking area of a club. The show was indeed so successful that Meredith was snapped up by SNL UK shortly after the Fringe, which has necessitated the rescheduling of his Soho run, which promptly sold out

As with September but more so, October is a month where the buzziest Edinburgh Fringe shows arrive in London, with oddball endeavours like Sam Eley’s hateful old man alter ego Basil Crumbwick or Lin Jin Hao’s ambient comedy smash Falling from a Moon. There is, as ever, plenty more besides, from a last chance to see Tim Key’s hits show Loganberry to a first look at the latest from musical comedy duo Flo & Joan at Shepherd’s Bush Empire. 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 2026 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Conceptual comic Joseph Morpurgo hasn’t been totally absent this last 10 years: he recently brought back his classic 2015 show Soothing Sounds for Baby. However, Highlander 70 is his first new work in nearly a decade although you’d hardly guess it if you didn’t know: he throws himself into a show with truly esoteric subject matter with the breezy energy of a man who pumps out a weirdy Fringe show a year. And although he’s not an observational stand-up type who was going to talk us through what he’s been up to, there’s just something admirably ballsy about announcing his return with this. Wearing clay-coloured face paint for whatever reason, he dives straight into the premise. He allegedly randomly happened across a 1970 high school yearbook for a US high school called Highlander Academy, in New Jersey. And from the pictures contained therein he spins an eccentric and amusing yarn about David Moon, a student who appears multiple times in the book. Of course Murpurgo has no real idea who Moon was. But he has crafted a narrative that Moon sits at the heart of, when a private diary detailing the straitlaced student’s love for the most popular girl in school goes missing on graduation day, prompting an epic quest to retrieve it.  I would assume that somehow Morpurgo did happen upon the real yearbook – it seems like too mad a thing to have entirely fabricated – but clearly the wild stories he tells of David and his...

Sir Lenny Henry has long since transcended being a ‘mere’ comedian – if he ever really was – with a career that has long leant more towards the stage, kids’ books and general elder statesman-ing. He’s still got it, though: aged 67 he heads out on his first stand-up tour in over a decade with Still at Large. His first since 2010, it’s billed as ‘part stand-up, part storytelling and part conversation’.

There’s something genuinely heartening about the fact that Tim Key – essentially a weird poet – has become such a big deal, in part (of course) thanks to his appearances in less poetic guise in everything from talk shows to Alan Partridge to Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17. He’s been touring new show Loganberry – follow up to previous hit Mulberry – for a couple of years now and it’s another good ’un, a midlife crisis show dispatched in Key’s inimitable style, prompted by his outrage when Gabby Logan invited him on her podcast about middle age.  

Think of your favourite mainstream comedian – there’s a good chance they cut their comedy teeth at Balham’s Banana Cabaret, which is sadly set to close after more than four decades in the biz. Housed in the Bedford, a pub and live music space with capacity for an audience of 250, Banana Cabaret was launched in 1983. This makes it one of London’s longest-running comedy clubs to maintain residency in the same venue (just behind top dog Downstairs at the King’s Head in Crouch End). Famous comics who’ve previously tread its boards include Eddie Izzard, Sara Pascoe, Ed Byrne, Lee Evans, Jo Brand, Zoe Lyons, Jack Dee, Rob Brydon, Sarah Millican and Catherine Tate. All in all, then, its departure isn’t great news for London comedy – but it’s not all doom and gloom. Before it splits, Banana Cabaret will host a Farewell Festival, with Byrne and Lyons joined by the likes of Al Murray, Marcus Brigstocke, Lucy Porter and Simon Evans. In total, 45 acts will perform across 11 shows at the venue throughout May, while Tim Vine and Harry Hill are due to make guest appearances at the Best of Banana Cabaret, which will run every weekend in March and April. Ed Byrne, a staunch fan of the long-running comedy institution, described Banana Cabaret as ‘one of the truly great comedy clubs in the UK’. So, why is Banana Cabaret shutting up shop? When producer Dave Vickers announced the news on Instagram in February, he explained: ‘I’m ready to retire. I’ve loved it, there have been so many amazing...

‘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

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...