7 comedy shows to see in 2025, from Abby Wambaugh to Jin Hao Li
By Zoë Paskett
This feature originally appeared in the Winter 2024/25 issue of the LMAOnaise newspaper. To read it in print and savour it for eternity, get your newspaper here now!
Here is just one handful of the wonderful shows I saw and loved this year, which you can catch again in 2025:
Jin Hao Li: Swimming In A Submarine
Jan 21st, Bristol Comedy Festival; Jan 25th, Monkey Barrel Edinburgh; Jan 27-Feb 8th, Soho Theatre London; Mar 21st, Glasgow Comedy Festival
Image: Rebecca Need-Menear
Fresh off the back of a brilliant feature in the first issue of the newspaper, Jin Hao Li made an amazing debut show (we can only presume the two are connected). Three nightmares, three dreams and his life story – a simple enough idea, but his surreal and soft tone (except for the shouting) serve to introduce him thoroughly but with enough space to wet the whistle for whatever comes next. He’s doing stand-up differently, and he’s the comedians’ favourite at the moment which is how you know he’s good.
Read the full LMAOnaise review here
Kate Cheka: A Messiah Comes
Image: Benny J Johnson
Another LMAOnaise newspaper alumna, Kate Cheka has been a firm favourite stand-up since winning the Funny Women Awards. Kate has a world to save and the messiah complex to back it up. Her debut show spreads the gospel about ditching capitalism for eating berries in the woods (tits out). She’s also got a joke about the billionaire submarine incident that I think about very often. Conversational and frank, Kate is one of those comedians you simply want to spend time with for an hour. Also, buy her merch – she’s got prayer candles. No one else has those!
Abby Wambaugh: The First 3 Minutes of 17 Shows
Image: Marie Hald
I love when a show can tell you exactly what it’s going to be but still manage to give nothing away. Abby Wambaugh made her debut at the Fringe to huge acclaim (including mine!), with a show made of stand-up, sketch, character comedy, storytelling, music, games, and joyful audience interaction, all about the beauty in the beginnings of things. Not only was it not what I expected, it’s unlike anything else I’ve seen.
Read the full LMAOnaise review here
Katie Norris: Farm Fatale
Dec 11-14th, Soho Theatre; then on tour Feb 8th-Mar 30th in Leicester, Bath, Bristol, Brighton, Liverpool, Maidenhead, Cambridge, Hull, Salford, Norwich, Exeter, Leeds, Southampton and Birmingham
Image: Lucy Ridges
Another debut that made a splash this year is Katie Norris’s brilliant Farm Fatale. Combining her sketch background and enviable singing voice with stand-up, the result is a whirlwind of an hour that’s so confidently Katie. There are songs about divorced dads, DJs, and guys who are way too obsessed with James Acaster (a personal favourite track). But the star is Atticus, her cat, and his relationship with his cat-sitter. A lot of good fun.
Jordan Brookes: Fontanelle (definitely a musical)
Image: Louise Mason
Jordan Brookes doing a musical? Surely not. Well, believe it, he’s such a brave boy. Humans love nothing more than a catastrophic disaster – we can’t help but be drawn to it. To butcher and change a famous Nora Ephron quote, everything is entertainment. So Jordan is looking to everyone’s favourite(??) disaster – the Titanic – for material, plumbing the depths for something new to say about it. It’s both classic Brookes and an entirely new, very ambitious undertaking. This is without doubt my favourite show he’s ever done, and I love his comedy so that’s saying a lot.
Chelsea Birkby: This Is Life, Cheeky Cheeky
On tour Jan 18th-Mar 28th, Cheltenham, Leicester, Oxford, Edinburgh, Brighton, Manchester and Bristol
Image: Esme Buxton
It’s an automatic win for me if someone references the Cheeky Girls in their show. But even without that, Chelsea Birkby has quickly become one of my most common citations when people ask for stand-up recommendations. This show is as funny as it is intellectually stimulating, centring around desire, embodiment and her long-time therapist’s suggestion that she should see someone else. I absolutely adored this show, and not just because I personally know the wild horses she talks about.
Demi Adejuyigbe Is Going To Do One (1) Backflip
Image: Josh Goldner
I know what you’re thinking! Does Demi Adejuyigbe actually do a backflip in this show? I simply won’t say. It’s a high tech combination of stand-up and music, and shows just how much clever writing goes into artfully silly comedy. From an absurd updated version of We Didn’t Start The Fire to hilarious robotic cameo resulting from his invitation for an audience member to punch him in the stomach, the entire hour is relentless and a weirdly welcome sort of whiplash.
