London's greatest comedy festival returns, bringing the spirit of the Fringe to Shoreditch!

ARGComFest is a weekend comedy festival of Fringe previews and work-in-progress shows that takes place every summer. The festival brings an attentively curated programme of over sixty comedians — from big name TV favourites to up-and-coming newcomers — to the labyrinthine settings of Shoreditch Town Hall.

For a single, ridiculously good value ticket price, you get access to a whole weekend of comedy. We sell day or weekend tickets with audience members free to move between spaces, seeing whichever acts they like — just like a music festival.

This year’s festival features former Mash Report host and two-time Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee Nish Kumar; Writers Guild Award winner for Best Radio Comedy Olga Koch; and 2023 Taskmaster star and Off Menu self-doxxer Ivo Graham.

The weekend also includes star of Live at the Apollo Helen Bauer; BBC Sounds Wheel of Misfortune podcast co-host Alison Spittle; people's princess and TikTok starlet Daniel Foxx; three-time Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee Kieran Hodgson; and “the king of online” Mat Ewins.

We have exciting new works-in-progress from Live at the Apollo and Mock the Week’s Larry Dean, 8 Out of 10 Cats and The Guilty Feminist’s Catherine Bohart, and Unforgivable and Taskmaster’s Lou Sanders.

Expect tales of romance, a hologram and a near-death experience in Thorpe Park from Celya AB; jokes (mainly) about how weird and annoying capitalism is from working-class comedian Tom Mayhew; and routines on Greta Thunberg, the Queen and calling you all a bunch of virgins from Chloe Petts. We have Nabil Abdulrashid with new material about trying to be a good person while staying a badman; a show about strength, the female body and how awesome the NHS is in Scotland from Thanyia Moore; and a surreal and silly interactive stand-up show/birthday party from Cerys Bradley.

We’re presenting hotly anticipated debuts including Priya Hall’s show Grandmother’s Daughter — a joyful tribute to one old Welsh lady and the impossible standards Priya has to live up to as she prepares to become a matriarch of her own family; Lulu Popplewell exploring the links between Love Actually, smoking crack, the Daily Mail and sunburn; Freya Parker (as seen in sketch duo Lazy Susan and Jurassic World: Dominion) navigating the struggles of trying to remain cheeky when it's raining trauma; and Welsh, Brown, Gay, Gen-Z comedian Leila Navabi with a show about how unethical it is to artistically exploit marginalised identities for social gain.

Janine Harouni explores her Arab roots, pregnancy, and what happens when your DNA test does not go to plan; Stuart Laws talks about getting married, being middle of the road and trying to be more honest; Sikisa worries about words, in a story of rediscovery and reflection; John Travulva critiques his best-known tick-box character: queer, non-binary, neurodiverse class-straddler Jodie Mitchell; and following last year’s critically-acclaimed, sell-out debut, Ania Magliano returns with a show about the worst haircut of her life.

2019 Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Jordan Brookes attempts to recreate a video online of an animated snake crawling, made for entertaining cats; BBC New Comedy Award winner Heidi Regan puts the fun back into searching for meaning in a chaotic universe (if we agree to spell universe as ‘fun-iverse’, which I believe we agreed to); Absolute Radio’s Glenn Moore tries out a couple of episodes of his new Radio 4 stand-up series; and 2022 Edinburgh Comedy Award Panel Prize winner for Best in Class Sian Davies will take you on a journey through masculinity and gender identity via Salford Lads Club (puncture repair kit not included).

Following his 5-star, award-nominated, sell-out debut show in 2022, Vittorio Angelone tries his difficult second album; pole dancing comedian Siân Docksey presents her brand-new genre-smashing philosophical dance-comedy party and/or just has an existential crisis on a stick; and star of Would I Lie to You? Stephen Bailey proves why he’s much more than a crass act.

Fresh from doing tour support for Alan Carr, Russell Peters and Jim Gaffigan, Andre de Freitas tells his story of going from living in a car and under a staircase, to becoming a male escort and now being Portugal's biggest young comedy star; working class Cornish comedian Tamsyn Kelly gives us a brutally honest, but fair appraisal of the men in her life, from a woman who has cried in most high-street shops; reigning BBC New Comedy Awards winner and British Comedian of the Year Dan Tiernan presents his gag-heavy, high-energy debut hour; and Chortle's Best Newcomer 2023 and Funny Women Awards' first-ever double winner character comedian Lorna Rose Treen invites you inside her mind for an hour of characters, comedy, content, content, content, costumes and content.

The final additions to the line-up are Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Spencer Jones, Max & Ivan, Rob Auton, Tatty Macleod, Bilal Zafar, Nathan D'Arcy Roberts, Tarot, Andrew O'Neill and Tarot: Hive Mind.

The weekend’s fantastic hosts include creator and star of BBC Radio 4 sitcom The Dream Factory Joz Norris; comedy goblin and Oscar losing Writer's Assistant Saima Ferdows; and creator of international cult comedy night Storytellers’ Club Sarah Bennetto. Joining them are the “marvellously dark & dangerous” (Scotsman) Richard Sandling and the “wonderfully quirky” Nathaniel Metcalfe. You can also look forward to hosts Amy Annette, Ray Badran, Kathryn Higgins, Ben Pope, Ruby Carr and Alice India

You can see more information about the ARGComFest 2023 programme by clicking here.

The festival programme celebrates and attracts diversity in all its forms. ARG is committed to making live comedy more accessible and inclusive, and this year’s programme features live captioned performances throughout the weekend. For more information, visit argcomfest.com

Plus returning this year following a sold-out show in 2022, ARG and Shoreditch Town Hall present The Friday Night Show — a spectacular, star-studded showcase of comedians at the top of their game! For more details and tickets click here.

Unfortunately the following acts are no longer performing at ARGComFest 2023: Jamali Maddix.

Tickets & OFFERS

You can book a weekend ticket for the festival on this page, which means you have access to both the Saturday and the Sunday shows. If you would prefer to visit us on only one of the days, you can do so on the Day Tickets page here.

Weekend tickets are limited, so if it looks like we've sold out but you still want to join us on both days, you can buy two individual day tickets.

If you're looking for the festival's Friday Night Show only, just head to The Friday Night Show page here. Weekend ticketholders can get £12 tickets (saving £8) to The Friday Night Show - just add both tickets to your basket and the discount will apply automatically.

Line-up subject to change. For more information on this year’s programme including artists and show information, visit argcomfest.com