Comedy this week

Comedy around the world: where to go, city by city

Stand-up is the easiest night out to add to a trip: it’s cheap, it’s late, it rarely sells out weeks ahead, and in most of the cities on Togoist there is a room where the country’s best-known comics test new material unannounced. Here is where to find comedy shows city by city, with addresses, and a link to what’s on in each right now.

Comedy in London, Dublin and Edinburgh

Comedy in London starts at the Comedy Store (1A Oxendon Street, off Leicester Square), the club that shaped British stand-up, with shows every night and the improvised Comedy Store Players on Wednesdays and Sundays; the big names tour the Hammersmith Apollo and the O2. Comedy in Dublin means Vicar Street (58–59 Thomas Street), where Ireland’s best-known comics play multi-night runs, and the pub rooms around Camden Street. Comedy in Edinburgh is the Fringe: three weeks in August when hundreds of comedians play every room in the city, and the place where most British and Irish comedy careers begin.

Comedy in New York and the American cities

Comedy in New York is the Comedy Cellar (117 MacDougal Street, Greenwich Village), where headliners drop in unannounced on any given night, plus the Village Underground and a dozen smaller rooms; book a week ahead for weekends. Comedy in Los Angeles, where the Sunset Strip clubs are the industry’s proving ground, Boston and Las Vegas, with its residencies, each have their own listings.

Comedy in English across Europe

Most European cities now have English-language stand-up nights, usually in bars, usually midweek, and a growing number of touring international names. Comedy in Berlin has the busiest English scene on the continent, with open mics most nights and touring shows at the larger halls. Comedy in Amsterdam has Boom Chicago, performing improvised comedy in English every night in the Jordaan, and comedy in Paris, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Lisbon all have regular English nights alongside the local-language circuit; the big touring names play the same halls as the concerts, the Olympia in Paris among them.

Comedy in Madrid, Vienna, Milan and Rome

Comedy in Madrid is mostly in Spanish, with a lively monologue scene in the bars of Malasaña and touring shows at the Gran Vía theatres. Comedy in Vienna has the Kabarett tradition in German and English nights in the bars; Milan and Rome bring the Italian names to the theatres and the English acts to the international bars.

How to use these pages

The list at the top is the live pick: one show per city, the fullest listing first, refreshed every hour. Each city page shows every comedy show on there tonight, this weekend and this week, with times, venues, prices and a ticket link to Ticketmaster, the official seller.