The 10 most memorable comedy gigs of 2025
...according to Chortle editor Steve Bennett
Here’s my annual list of the most memorable of the approximately 300 live comedy shows I saw this year, as editor of Chortle. It’s a different metric than ‘best’ – though thankfully none of the shows in 2025’s batch were memorable for the wrong reasons.
As always, getting down to ten was a challenge, but honourable mentions go to Toussaint Douglas for a very strong and distinctive Fringe debut; ever-raging Ian Smith and Dan Tiernan; Cat Cohen for bringing her Gen Z main character energy to her health woes; Mark Steel sharing his cancer stories (although his memoir was even better); Jamie Lee's compelling truie-crime story My Friend Katy and Lou Wall for an enjoyably tricksy show with too many rug-pulls to keep up with. And I missed Luke McQueen’s Comedian's Comedian – which seems like it would have been a strong contender for this list, by all accounts.
But those that did make the cut…
10. Ada and Bron: The Origin Of Love, Pleasance, Edinburgh, August
The unsexiest show about sex you’re ever likely to see. A wonderfully weird celebration of the awkwardness of intimacy, a well-established British comedy trait, but performed with a powerfully distinctive aesthetic.
Ada Player and Bron Waugh's creations – from a dreary pair trapped in a loveless 1970s suburban marriage to toxic rockers – were surreal yet recognisable and brought to life with compelling and quirky performances.
9. Adam Riches: The 12 Beans of Christmas, Soho Theatre, London, December
Riches doesn’t do subtle – especially in his guise as Sean Bean – and nor does Christmas. So was seeded a perfect storm of raucous chaos as the comic oversaw a ridiculous game show.
There’s a risk of recency bias in any list like this, but Riches’ booting mince pies into the audience and firing a grape from his mouth as he transformed into a human trebuchet certainly have to count as memorable moments by anyone’s account. His intense and very physical portrayal of Jimmy Connors in the one-man show Jimmy at London’s Park Theatre – technically a dramatic show but with generous lashings of wit – was another highlight of the year.
8. Robyn Reynolds: What Doesn’t Kill You, Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne, April
Finding a new talent I’ve never previously heard of is a constant delight of the job, and there were a few such discoveries at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, including Jessica Barton’s Mary Poppins-style clown act Dirty Work and Kate Dolan’s mad-in-a-good-way performance in The Critic as she confronted her inner voices.
But Robyn Reynolds, a Brit based down under, makes the list for a highly accomplished debut, drawing on a tough and chaotic childhood but processed with upbeat positivity – and a lot of joyous jokes.
7. Dan Rath: Tropical Depression, Swiss Club, Melbourne, April
But my highlight of MICF is the dependably wretched Dan Rath, who combines a distinctively bleak worldview from the deepest gutter of society with best-in-class gag-writing. Not a syllable is wasted in jokes that come from far-left field, so densely packed into an hour when a more laconic comic could spread them over three.
6. David Elms Describes A Room, Pleasance Edinburgh, August
Memorable for the sheer ambition of spending an hour building the mental image of a room by taking suggestions from the audience about every aspect, from the big to the minute.
It sounds so deceptively simple – if not obviously entertaining – on paper, yet low-key Elms quietly and capably builds a community among the crowd as clearly as he builds his fictional room. Then pays everything off deliciously by acting out what may have happened in this place. Creatively bold, and a unique experience
5. Tim Minchin: Songs The World Will Never Hear, New Theatre, Oxford, July
Minchin’s been at this game long enough – and has the soundest of showbiz instincts – to guarantee an entertaining night out. And with a retrospective tour marking his 20th anniversary, the mood was more celebratory and playful even than usual.
Early-career songs were given a full-band arrangement that were not available to a new comic, infusing them with vibrant new life. Occasionally sincere, often silly, and always curious to explore real emotions not cliché - this was a cracking party night out with brains, soul and spirit.
4. Sam Nicoresti: Baby Doomer, Pleasance, Edinburgh, August
Why does being trans have to be such a big issue? Well, because some people want it to be – and it’s rarely the trans people themselves who are most vocal about that.
Sam Nicoresti might have built her show from a potential social flashpoint – being misgendered – but what transpired was farce, not polemic, proving that however you might identify, we’re all just idiots trying to get by.
Likewise, autism got a look-in – almost inevitably – but again just because it’s funny, not for sympathy or some sort of status. The show covered a lot of ground, but covered it with gags – deservedly earning Nicoresti the Edinburgh Comedy Award for being funny, not for being a political entity.
3. Joz Norris: You Wait. Time Passes, Edinburgh, August
The only five-star review I wrote at the Edinburgh Fringe, this marked a welcome breakthrough for Norris, long known for his quirky shows, often more playfully fun than constantly laugh-out-loud.
This one had a high concept – that he was going to unveil the culmination of his life’s work in comedy, with plenty of other milestones on the way. The big reveal, so expectedly ridiculous and feeble, didn’t disappoint, emblematic of a show that never put a foot wrong, marking a perfect mix of absurdity and proper jokes.
2. Every Brilliant Thing, @sohoplace, London
Shamefully, I’d never caught Jonny & The Baptists comedian Jonny Donohoe performing any of the previous incarnations of this one-actor show, which he very much made his own as it built a reputation at the Edinburgh Fringe and arts-centre tours.
He was one of the performers on the roster for the West End run, alongside the likes of Minnie Driver and Lenny Henry – but Sue Perkins was in the driving seat the night I saw it. As the show demands, she brought strong elements of stand-up and audience participation (of the nicest kind) to this life-affirming show, based on an ever-growing list of reasons to be cheerful compiled by the show’s narrator following their mother’s suicide attempt.
This is a marvellous piece of feelgood-when-times-are-bad theatre from playwright Duncan Macmillan, with its elevation from fringe theatre to the West End thoroughly deserved – and understandable.
1. Inside No 9, Wyndham's Theatre, London, January
It’s no surprise that the people who have created some of the most memorable television of the decade also created the most memorable live comedy moments – though it’s testimony to how blasé we have become to the talents of Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith that we’re not so surprised.
It was a strong year across comedy theatre – as well as Every Brilliant Thing, new West End productions of the Importance Of Being Earnest and The Producers fizzed with life – but the swansong of Inside No9 remained THE highlight.
Most episodes had a certain theatricality, constrained by limited location and cast, and the inventiveness of the TV series seemed heightened on stage, as it mashed up genres from farce and parody to front-of-cloth stand-up. A typically ambitious endeavour, pulled off with the duo’s usual elan. Just a shame it has to be the swansong - although it would be the pair’s best twist ever if it wasn’t.
Now let’s see what 2026 brings!
Published: 31 Dec 2025
