Scottish Comedy Highlights: January 2024

Coming to Scotland at the beginning of 2024 are a heady mix of tour shows and shows which are merely a twinkle in their creators’ eyes, set to be honed across the year.

For touring shows, Monkey Barrel has a shedload this month. We’re dead excited for Fringe Best Newcomer winner, Urooj Ashfaq, to bring Oh No! back to Edinburgh (23 Jan, 8pm, £16; also at Glasgow Stand, 24 Jan, 8.30pm, £16). The Mumbai-based stand-up is this month’s big interview – read it in our January issue. Martin Urbano, another of this year’s Best Newcomer Nominees, returns to the city (14 Jan, 8pm, £12). It’s a subversive hour of ‘cancellable comedy’ which knows exactly what it’s doing. We’d also be remiss not to shout about returning shows from Robin Morgan (20 Jan, 8pm, £8-10), who’s touring with 2022’s Fringe show and Louise Atkinson at The Stand (30 Jan, 8.30pm, £8-10). Highly praised for her Fringe show in August, Atkinson won the Amused Moose Best Debut Award.

Over in Glasgow, Man Like Mobeen, Taskmaster and Our Flag Means Death star Guz Khan tours The Tour Continues to the Theatre Royal (21 Jan, 7pm, from £24.10). There’re limited tickets remaining so grab them quick.

There’s also something CERTIFIED FRESH in the air! This month, The Stand launches two brand new regular shows – The Edit (Stand Edinburgh, 24 Jan, £8-10, 8.30pm), a monthly political comedy gig hosted by Laura Davis and James Nokise, and Screen Time (Stand Glasgow, 29 Jan, 8.30pm, £8), a night dedicated to multimedia comedy, hosted by Fearghas Kelly. They’re joined by Material, Girl in their new home, Sunday afternoons at The Stand (28 Jan, 3pm, £7-8).

There’s also some brand-spanking-new Work-in-Progress gigs from some of the biggest names in comedy right now. Josie Long’s gearing up for nascent jokes about enormous old animals (Stand Glasgow, 10 and 11 Jan, 8.30pm, £8-10) and teams up with Jonny and the Baptists for a joint WIP at Monkey Barrel (17 Jan, 8pm, £12). Also at ‘the Barrel’™ are WIPs from Catherine Bohart (13 Jan, 6pm, £7) and Olga Koch (27 Jan, 8pm, £7) who also brings Prawn Cocktail to the venue the night before (26 Jan, 8pm, £14), while round the corner at Banshee Labyrinth, Phil O'Shea and Eleanor Morton road-test ideas for their 2024 Fringe shows (5 Jan, 8pm, £4.50/pay-what-you-can).