Our choice of where to find funny this week.
Sunday: Northern former variety star Count Arthur Strong's new show, Command Performance, gets an airing at the Richmond Theatre at 8pm (£20.50). Look forward to confused memories, malapropisms and perhaps some material unsuitable for Radio 4... Also at the New Wimbledon Theatre on Tuesday.
Monday: Paul Sinha, Edward Aczel, Elis James and Maff Brown make a fabulous line-up for a Monday night, so shift your backside to Outside the Box in Kingston for 8pm (£7.50 / £5.50 students).
Popular demand's brought Kevin Eldon back for some more titting about at the Soho Theatre, today until Saturday and 25-30th April, 9.30pm, £17.50 / £15 / £12.50.
Rob Deering's music-based game show Beat This is at the Pleasance. Four different stand-ups banter with the audience about rock and pop (8pm, £9).
God only knows why Monday is suddenly comedy night, but this is the way it is. Jonathan Pryce, Fiona Allen, Sally Phillips, Siobhan Redmond, James Lance and Ed Weeks are the team reading from Celebrity Autobiography, the hit show from New York, at the Leicester Square Theatre at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £22.50 / £19.50 but that's a pretty good line-up for the cash.
Tuesday: Robin Ince is in charge of a bunch of comedians debating what stuff books might be better than (cigarettes? Nandos? Golf-frisbee?). Joanna Neary, Matthew Crosby, Richard Sandling, Stuart Evers, Ben Moor, Martin Austwick and John-Luke Roberts all have their own opinions. It's happening at the Dalston Boys' Club from 7pm, £8 advance, £10 on the door, part of the excellent London Word Festival.
Ade Edmundson, Rowland Rivron, Neil Innes and Simon Brint - AKA The Idiot Bastard Band - are joined in their comedy song rehearsals by Nigel Planer at the Wilmington Arms from 8pm, tickets £7.50.
Wednesday: Poet, wit and raconteur Murray Lachlan Young hits the Idler Academy with a lecture on the Taoist Way of The What. Naturally. 7pm, £18, includes wine.
Thursday: Stewart Lee, Simon Donald, Milton Jones, Adam Bloom and Tony Law are doing a charity gig at Bloomsbury Theatre to raise money for a new cancer centre at UCLH. It's like everyone's a winner. (7.30pm, standing room only £10).
Friday: Comedy in a bookshop? Why not. Wood Green's Big Green Bookshop is branching out into funny with Ha Ha Hardbacks (working title), 8pm, £3 - four or five acts tbc, but we trust them enough to recommend the night.
The wonderful and increasingly-less-whimsical-and-more-angry Josie Long introduces you to her friends Tom Basden, James Ancaster and John-Luke Roberts at Bush Hall (7.30pm, £12.50).
Saturday: Dave Gorman's Screen Guild starts at Hoxton Hall - the eponymous host curates what's being described as a "mixed bill" with his laptop and a big screen. 7pm, £12, and monthly hereonafter.
Let us know about intelligent, alternative, friendly new comedy gigs, clubs and shows around Town: [email protected]
