The London comedy scene is vast and multifarious at any time of the year, but during the run-up to Edinburgh it explodes beyond all comprehension. Luckily, we - and only we - know what the best shows of the week are. Cancel even the most essential of intrusive surgery to attend any of our recommendations. After all, laughter is the best medicine!! (citation needed) Monday 7th - Dan Antopolski may have crafted the most......

Here's week three of our pick of the week's best Edinburgh Festival previews, where big name-acts charge small prices while they try out new ideas. Embrace London's comedy scene in June and July like you would embrace your dearest friend, or a delicious pineapple, and see as many shows as you can while the price is "right". You'll do well to start with these four: Tuesday 24th - Top Islington club Fat Tuesdays hosts......

Words: useful little critters, no? Without them we’d be, well, a lot of things, but most certainly out of a job. From puns to poetry, improv to irony, books to blogs, we pretty much revel in all that language has to offer. But no, we will neither confirm nor deny reports that we’ve stayed home on a Friday night for a heated game of Scrabble. What we will confirm, however, is that we greet......

The Book Club is dead! Long live The School for Gifted Children! Robin Ince's Book Club, for the unacquainted, was a delightfully ramshackle evening of intellectual mirth and experimentation, which was given a grand farewell in December at the British Museum. Tonight The School for Gifted Children kickstarts the glorious sounding N20 Comedy Festival for show, stories, songs and outright lies in the dinky Studio 68 at Battersea Arts Centre. Robin Ince is in......

We nearly always mention the monthly Late at Tate Friday nights because each month the events, ideas and people involved are more weird and wonderful than the last. It's all about winning this month in Late at Tate Britain: Jackpot. Winning and prize-giving is consuming the various Tate Galleries as the annual Turner Prize exhibition of shortlisted artists is relocated to Tate Liverpool. In Tate Britain, there's the Turner Prize: A Retrospective exhibition instead......

We think Josie Long is magic. Like, properly magic. With spells and prestidigitation and conjuration and that. This is the only way we can explain how she is able to perform to sell-out crowds at a venue as large at The Bloomsbury Theatre, but still totally capture the spirit, warmth, friendliness and intimacy of a small, lo-fi indie comedy gig. When we saw her earlier this year at Stewart Lee's fund-raiser to release a......

While enjoying an ever-growing following in his native land, David Cross isn't the household name he deserves to be on our side of the Atlantic. This may change in a few weeks, however, as tonight marks the first performance in a ten-day residency for the American comedian at Oxford Street's 100 Club entitled "A Really Lovely Night Out With David Cross And Friends". Supporting his stand-up routine and earning their "and friends" title will......

On Tuesday, Londonist's favourite comedian, the brilliant if.comeddie best newcomer 2006 and Londonist interviewee Josie Long is taking a break from her current UK tour of last year's show, 'Kindness and Exuberance' and doing her first ever preview for her next Edinburgh show on Tuesday at a night called Everyone Just Wants To Be Happy at The Old Coffee House in Soho. We imagine that it'll be pretty ramshackle at this stage, but we......

We knew something strange was happening when one of Londonist's friends who likes house music and r&b and refuses to listen to indie music started singing The Gossip's amazing Standing In The Way of Control while doing the weekly shopping last week. It was only when we were pigging out in front of the television watching Hollyoaks later than night that we realised why. Yes possibly 2006's greatest song is being used on the really......

Robin Ince is a stand up comedian and writer. By all accounts he is very good and has had his fingers in many pies. Robin is also the founder of The Book Club, a nomadic club night. The club has proved to be so successful that Robin took it on a full UK tour this year and also won the Time Out Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy. This weekend, on the 17th December,......

Josie Long was the winner of the BBC New Comedy Award in 1999 at the tender age of 17. In that year she was also a runner up in the So You Think You're Funny? competition. She won best newcomer in the Chortle Awards 2001-2003 after which she took time off performing to complete her English degree at Oxford university. Since her return to stand up she has toured in support of Stewart Lee......

We'd like to start writing more about comedy here at Londonist. We have (arguably) the best comedy circuit in the world yet it has gone thusfar unwritten about by us at Londonist HQ. But fear not, we have changed our ways. We kick off with an interview with comedian, Richard Herring and a comedy recommendation for the week. Richard Herring is probably best known for his television work with Stewart Lee, 'Fist of Fun'......