Jimmy Carr is coming back to South Africa. The British-Irish comedian has announced two shows in March 2027 for his Laughs Funny tour: Sunbet Arena at Time Square in Pretoria on 13 March and the Grand Arena at GrandWest in Cape Town on 14 March.
Carr has built a career on rapid-fire, deadpan one-liners and a taste for the darker end of the joke spectrum. His pitch for the new show is typically blunt. Jokes, the promoters say, are like magnets: they attract people but they can also repel. Anyone put off by his brand of comedy has been told this one isn't for them. Everyone else can expect a night of banter and a warning that only the very brave sit in the front row.
The timing suits him. His last tour, Terribly Funny, sold well over 1.2 million tickets across the US, Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, making it the biggest international stand-up comedy tour ever. Laughs Funny is its follow-up and it marks the first time Carr has toured arenas in the UK and Ireland, with dates on sale through December 2026.
Fifty-plus countries into a stand-up career, the arena is now his natural habitat.
Away from the stage, he is one of the busiest people in comedy. UK audiences know him from more than two decades hosting Channel 4's 8 Out of 10 Cats, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and The Big Fat Quiz of the Year. He also fronts the UK edition of Amazon's Last One Laughing, now in its second series with a third and a Halloween special announced, and hosts Am I The A**hole for Comedy Central, which has been renewed for a second run.
Carr also has a film credit to his name. He co-wrote, executive produced and acted in the period-drama spoof Fackham Hall, released in the UK and US in December 2025 and rolled out more widely in early 2026.
His online reach is just as big. Carr has more than 18 million followers across social platforms. His YouTube channel has 1.8 million subscribers and more than a billion views, making him the most followed UK stand-up on the site. Much of that comes from his Heckle Amnesty series, built from crowd work at his live shows. In December 2025 he released Road Kill, a 60-minute YouTube Original of his favourite heckler exchanges from the previous year's tour.
In North America, Carr became the first UK comedian to sign a stand-up deal with Netflix in 2015. He has released four specials on the platform: Funny Business (2016), Best of Ultimate Gold Greatest Hits (2017), His Dark Material (2021) and Natural Born Killer (2023).
Full details for tickets available at www.bigconcerts.co.za.