Where to find funny next week
Sunday: Fans of Whose Line Is It Anyway may want to suppress a squee of excitement and get to the Comedy Store: Josie Lawrence, Richard Vranch and Paul Merton are part of the improvisation team tonight, alongside Andy Smart, Suki Webster and Lee Simpson (7.30pm, £17 / £12).
Monday: School Night at the New Red Lion (8pm, £8 / £6) is tutored by Matthew Crosby, introducing supply teachers Steve Pretty (music), Humphrey Ker (history) and Festival of the Spoken Nerd trio Helen Arney (PHSE), Steve Mould (science) and Matt Parker (maths). This sounds like a brilliant idea for a crappy Monday night in January.
Tuesday: Jimmy Carr is trying out new material at the (comparatively) weeny Hen and Chickens (7.30pm, £10). For all Carr's considered a punchably smug bastard, we thought his round table off-the-cuff comments on Ten O'Clock Live were the best thing about the show (which made us wonder why they kept putting him in stupid wigs and hanging him from wires). Tickets go on sale at 11am on the day of each gig: he's on tonight, Thursday and Friday 20 January (also yesterday).
Wednesday: Sketch group Sheeps (pictured) are doing a mix of their latest Edinburgh show and new stuff at the Soho Theatre until Saturday (9.45pm, £10-£15).
Thursday: There's more sketch and character comedy at the Camden Head with Comedy Back Rub (8pm): catch Pappy's, Checkley and Bush, Totally Tom, Oyster Eyes and your hosts Christmas for Two. And it's only a quid.
Friday: Simon Munnery, provider of one of the most surreal evenings we experienced last year, is at the Soho Theatre with last year's acclaimed Edinburgh show Hats Off to the 101ers (9.45pm, £17.50 / £15). Expect a delightful jumble of acerbic wit, observation, one-liners and tiny guitars and you won't go far wrong.
Saturday: Jerry Sadowitz is playing the Leicester Square Theatre (10pm). This should be all the information you need. Go on, pay your £22.50.
Book ahead: This can't have been terribly well publicised yet because there are still tickets left for Bill Bailey's work in progress shows at Leicester Square Theatre, on 16 and 23 January and 7 and 13 February (10pm, £15).
Tip us off to intelligent, alternative, friendly comedy gigs, clubs and shows around London: [email protected].
