Scottish Comedy Highlights: July 2025

There’s a handful of venues with seasons of Work-in-Progress gigs where you can see heaps of brilliant acts all in one place. Both Blackfriars and Leith Theatre are putting on WIP weekends – the former is 4 to 6 July (Various Times, £5 per show) boasting shows from Ayo Adenekan, Kim Blythe, Larry Dean and Marc Jennings, while Leith Theatre hosts four double bills across 10 to 13 July (Various Times, £12.50 per show), including previews from Krystal Evans, Laura Davis and Liam Withnail.

And if you like bang for your buck, check out Good Egg Comedy’s programme of WIPs where you can get a dirt cheap season ticket for a bunch of shows. Edinburgh’s Dragonfly and Gael & Grain in Glasgow (the bar formerly known as Van Winkle West End, formerly known as McPhabbs) are putting on a huge number of gigs with access to all of the venue’s shows for £20 in Edinburgh and £30 in Glasgow, or just £5 per show. Full lineups at goodeggcomedy.com, but we’d recommend catching Grace Mulvey (G&G, 12 Jul), Stephen Buchanan (G&G, 19 Jul) and Susan Riddell (Dragonfly, 16 Jul). If only the Fringe was this good value!

For one-off WIPs, you can catch a sneak peek of freestyle improv rapper MC Hammersmith’s latest hour at Monkey Barrel (9 Jul, 8pm, £7) while  Edinburgh Comedy Award Nominee Ian Smith’s excellently-titled new show, Foot Spa Half Empty, previews at the same venue later in the month (19 Jul, 8pm, £7). Both will be there come August too.

And in non-Fringe related gigs, Glasgow Improv Theatre’s July offering is really impressive. Not only are they recruiting new members for their longform Harold teams (info at improvglasgow.co.uk, deadline 28 Jul), they also have a series of world-class guest teachers, including Upright Citizen’s Brigade regular Alan Starzinski. As a bonus treat, he’s doing his solo show Slut Boy, about his journeys through sex, as a one-off (The Old Hairdresser’s, 15 Jul, 8.45pm, PWYW).