The best of the week's live comedy

The best of the week's live comedy, picked from the thousands of events Chortle currently has listed. Use our search panel to check our full listings by date and region.

Monday August 17

LONDON: New Zealand's Chris Parker returns to the UK with a new show, Take A Good Hard Look At Me, which is at Soho Theatre all week. He says: 'I’m just a 35-year-old gay man, who was told there was something special about him as a kid and has been grappling with that ever since, standing in front of an audience asking them to take a good hard look at ME!'

Tuesday August 18

EDINBURGH: Mark Watson again hosts the final of the Chortle Student Comedy Award competition in the Pleasance Courtyard. Vying for the prestigious title, previously won by the likes of Phil Wang and Joe Lycett, in 2026 are Eva Peroni, Kathy Rivett, Will Finney, Adam Ernest Pickard, Francesca Best, James Perham and Isaac Tompkinson. Tickets.

Thursday August 20

ANSTEY: This Leicester suburb hosts a three-day comedy festival in the very intimate surroundings of The Kneaded Pint pub, with comics including Shaparak Khorsandi, Josh Pugh and Esther Manito.

Friday August 21

DUBLIN: American comedian Rick Glassman – who played Burski on the NBC sitcom Undateable and Harold Ramis in the film A Futile And Stupid Gesture, a biopic about the National Lampoon – pays a flying visit, with an early and late show at Whelan's.

Published: 16 Aug 2026