Portobello fills comedy void

Most of London's comedy clubs shut up shop during August, when the Edinburgh Festival prompts the exodus of the capital's comics up North.

Thankfully, one of those filling the void is Tony Allen, who, from tonight, is plugging the space left by his weekly Performance Club (which returns in September) with a number of diverting gigs throughout August as part of the Portobello Film Festival.

Tonight, oddball actor and comedian Ken Campbell holds court with his Edinburgh preview of In Pursuit Of Cardenio, in which he and an improvisation troupe, Sticking Place, attempt to perform Shakespeare's 'lost' play. He rocks up again on August 17, with a solo show, Ken Campbell's Eccentric.

Tomorrow, fun musical duo Barry Cryer and Ronnie Golden preview their fifth Edinburgh show, A Century Of Songs, in which they run through ten decades of music in less than an hour (57 minutes, to be exact).

Thursday sees former Mary Whitehouse Experience member Rob Newman perform his latest political comedy show, No Planet B: The History Of The World Backwards, a challenging and cerebral musing on world events, as if they happened in reverse order (segregation becomes legalised in America, the Pankhursts campaign for women to stay at home, that sort of thing - brush up on your social history).

August 10's Slam Poetry Night, featuring the marvellously monikered Johnny Fluffypunk as MC, rounds out the list of tomfoolery. The laughs are free, so get there early.