Performance venues

London's stages and concert rooms: the West End houses and the playhouses that make their own shows, the grand halls, the churches with a musical life, the jazz basements, the comedy clubs, the clubs proper, and the rooms above pubs where things start. What is on is listed under each venue, and in What's On.

What is on at them this week is in What's On: Performance

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The Comedy Store

The club that made British stand-up what it is, running since 1979.

Fringe & pubsComedy club

It opened above a Soho strip club in 1979 and the first generation through it — Alexei Sayle, Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson, French and Saunders, Ben Elton — became alternative comedy, which then became all comedy. It moved to a basement off the Haymarket in 1993 and still runs the same way: a compère, a bill, and a gong for anyone dying on a Tuesday.

The bill is a pattern rather than a diary, and it is listed under the hours: stand-up at the end of the week, improv on Sundays, new material on Mondays, and an open mic once a month that is not for the faint-hearted.

Where
1a Oxendon Street, SW1Y 4EE
Nearest station
Piccadilly Circus · 2 min walk

Coming up

Regular events

  • Five world-class stand-upsThursday and Friday 19:30, Saturday 18:30 and 21:30
  • The Comedy Store PlayersSunday 19:30Improvised, and running since 1985; Josie Lawrence and Paul Merton are still in it.
  • Old RopeMonday 19:30New material night: comedians hold a rope while trying jokes they have not told before.
  • 'King GongLast Monday of the month · From £12Thirty comics try to last five minutes; the audience decides when they stop.
  • Cray Cray CabaretEvery other month, 19:30 · £15, with concessions availableComedy and music, from the Edinburgh Comedy Award-winning team behind The Wrestling.
  • Shoot From The HipOccasional Saturdays, 15:00Improvised games and scenes, unscripted throughout.
  • Paul Merton and Suki Webster's Improv ShowA limited season, 19:30Improvised games, scenes, stories and songs.

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

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