Best Comedy Events in Liverpool

Comedy in Liverpool is having a bit of a moment, and not in a polite golf-clap way. The city feels restless and sharp, with people genuinely hunting down new nights instead of just quoting old Scouse jokes at the bar. You can see it in the numbers, with crowds piling into all sorts of odd little shows and one offs that only Liverpool could produce.

If you want the best comedy in Liverpool, you start in the centre, where the venues are small enough that nothing feels too polished. The Shipping Forecast is the classic example, a proper city pub that keeps sneaking in comedy events between its pints and playlists. It is exactly the kind of place you end up by accident, realise there is a comic on, and stay for three more drinks because the room feels like it might fall apart at any second. In the best way.

The theatre side of comedy is quietly running the show. Liverpool Everyman theatre keeps pulling in the smarter stuff, the kind of comedy where you laugh, then think, then laugh again. Over at Unity Theatre, shows like Casu Martzu tell you everything about the local taste: weird, bold, a bit arty, but still funny enough that the regulars keep coming back. The John Foster Drama Studio at Liverpool John Moores University adds student energy into the mix, which means experimental sketches, strange character work and a crowd that actually listens instead of scrolling.

Then there are the comedy events in Liverpool that everyone suddenly knows about at the same time. Spontaneous Potter at the Epstein Theatre pulls in the improv nerds and the franchise obsessives. An Afternoon with Duncan Ferguson! is peak local cult energy, the kind of thing you could only sell in a city that treats football as religion and stand up as a second language. Eat the Rich (but maybe not me mates x) feels like it was written on a group chat, then somehow made it to the stage. These are the shows that people message their mates about, the ones that make Liverpool feel like it is building its own oddball comedy universe.

Here is where to start if you actually want to plug into comedy in Liverpool:

• The Shipping Forecast, ropey in all the right ways, great for low key comedy nights that feel discovered rather than advertised.
• Unity Theatre, for offbeat, clever shows like Casu Martzu that lean into Liverpool’s taste for the strange.
• Liverpool Everyman theatre, for polished, theatre led comedy that still has a local bite.
• John Foster Drama Studio at Liverpool John Moores University, for students, future names and experiments that might be brilliant or chaotic, sometimes both.
• Epstein Theatre, home to improv heavy hitters like Spontaneous Potter and big shared joke energy.
• One off events like An Afternoon with Duncan Ferguson! or Eat the Rich (but maybe not me mates x), perfect if you like your comedy with a very specific Liverpool accent.