Cambridge Footlights bring their tour to Brighton

Brighton has a long history of taking comedy seriously, so it is hardly surprising that the Cambridge Footlights have made the city a stop on their international tour. The troupe brings its 2026 show to Komedia Studio on Wednesday 9 September, with the curtain going up at 8:00 pm and doors opening at 7:30 pm. For anyone who has spent any time around the UK comedy scene, the name carries a fair amount of weight: The Independent has called them 'the most renowned sketch troupe of them all'.

What you get on the night is a brand new show put together by five of Cambridge's best student comedians, packed with their funniest sketches. The format is described as a vaudeville-esque mashup of surreal vignettes, celebrity impressions and the odd song or two, which is about as close as you can get to the classic sketch show without it being a scripted series. It is the kind of evening that rewards a bit of flexibility, as the show leans into audience participation and is not afraid of a bit of strong language or scenes of violence, so it is firmly aimed at the 16-and-over crowd rather than a family night out.

The venue is part of the draw. Komedia Studio sits at 44-47 Gardner Street in the heart of North Laine, only a few minutes' walk from Brighton station, and has built a reputation as the South Coast's leading comedy club and the city's main live entertainment venue. Seating is unreserved, which suits the relaxed atmosphere of a sketch night, and standard tickets sit around £13.00, though that figure is indicative and can shift from day to day, so it is worth checking before you commit.

For context, the Footlights are not just another student group. Founded in 1883, with its first performance in June of that year, it is one of Britain's oldest and most prestigious student sketch troupes, still run by students of the University of Cambridge. The list of alumni reads like a who's who of British comedy: John Cleese, a founding member of Monty Python, Eric Idle, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Sacha Baron Cohen, David Mitchell, Robert Webb, Richard Ayoade, Emma Thompson, James Acaster, Olivia Colman, John Oliver, Mel Giedroyc, Sue Perkins and Tim Key, who was a member despite not being a student at the university. That lineage is a good reminder of why a student sketch show from Cambridge still fills rooms decades after its first performance.

If you are planning to make a night of it, it is worth knowing that Komedia keeps its calendar busy. Tatty Macleod, the French-British stand-up and influencer known as 'that French TikTok lady', brings her debut hour Fugue on 17 September; David Correos plays on 20 September; the NLCA Comedy Night falls on 28 September; and The Running Joke lands on 26 October. Further ahead, Christian Jegard's Christmas Bedsit Party is set for 10 December, and Mark Simmons & Friends are booked for 31 January 2027. The Footlights, however, are the big name on the immediate horizon, and for a troupe with that kind of pedigree, a Wednesday night in North Laine is a fitting place for it.