Alex Finch takes a look at the best stand up, storytelling, and sketch comedy of 2025
We continue our look back at 2025 with Alex Finch. Alex is very much a comedy man, and crosses between theatre and comedy regularly. So here he takes a look at what took his eye during the last 12 months.
Last year I was frustrated by the lack of quality comedy on television, and while that’s picked up a little with the likes of the sublime Such Brave Girls, the enormously charming Leonard and Hungry Paul and the pleasingly daft Last One Laughing, if you want to see innovative, original yet beautifully funny comedy, the live circuit is still the best way to do so.
While last year Julia Masali’s Ha Ha Ha Ha blew me away to such an extent that there was never any doubt in my mind as to what the best show was, as thanks to the amount of astonishing comedy produced in 2025 it’s a little harder. But a place in the top three would definitely go to Nathalie Palademes Weer, which was extended to ninety minutes when it opened at Soho Theatre‘s gorgeous new Walthamstow venue. It quickly became apparent as to why the show has won so many awards as it’s a performance which is breathtaking when it comes to the level of ridiculousness of physical feats, but even better is a script packed with the kind of absurd but hilarious dialogue I’ll remember for not just years but decades.
Joseph Morpurgo also definitely deserves a very high placing as well, partially because he restaged his sublime Soothing Sounds For Baby show at the Soho Theatre this December, which showed his astonishing capacity to link a huge selection of mad ideas together and still be hilarious throughout. But even better was a joyously inventive work in progress hour at The Bill Murray, and I can’t wait to see the full version as it’s so inspired, taking a fairly simple idea about an old American high school yearbook and using it to create a beautifully ingenious narrative that’s packed with laugh out loud moments.
Sketch group Siblings produced their greatest show so far this summer, which saw the duo using the framing device of a mad scientist who can view people’s dreams to create a daft, silly, smart, chaotic yet always delightful hour, one which had me crying with laughter and unable to stop giggling for ages afterwards. That also occurred with Ayoade Bamgboye’s Swings and Roundabouts, who deservedly won the best newcomer award at the Edinburgh Festival: it’s an incredibly confident piece of storytelling that remains constantly unpredictable and is packed with hilarious observations. Sam Nicoresti was also pleasingly the recipient of an Edinburgh Award for Baby Doomer, and while perhaps a less complex show than 2024’s fantastic Wokeflake, it managed to be even funnier and her best set yet.
I first saw a work in progress of Sh!t Theatre‘s Evita Too in 2022 and fell in love with it then, but the production of the finished show at the Southbank Centre this December was even better. A quite astonishing comedy musical, it covers so many disparate themes and ideas yet still manages to make them all fascinating and funny. And also on the work in progress front, James Acaster‘s latest show sees him having a great deal of fun playing around with the idea that he’s in fact Craig Simons, the number one James Acaster impersonator in the world, and that sense of glee was very infectious indeed.
Finally, other five star shows that I’ve not got the space to gush about but would recommend to everyone include Katherine Ryan’s Battleaxe, Lorna Rose Treen’s 24 Hour Diner People, Marjolene Robertson’s O, Elouise Eftos’ Australia’s First Attractive Comedian, Salty Brine’s He’s So Unusual, and Allison Spittle’s Big, all of which were an absolute joy.
