This week's new live comedy

Jessica Fostekew, On tour There are plenty of comedians willing to dumb themselves down in order to win audience approval, but that's not a game Jessica Fostekew is prepared to play. Instead, she wears her smarts on her sleeve, with an act that frequently refers to complex concepts and wordy ideas while managing to keep things accessible enough for everyone to enjoy. Fostekew's just back from the Edinburgh festival fringe, where she performed a well-received show about the ins and outs of linguistics and lexicography; great fun, if not the sort of thing that's likely to win over fans of Paddy McGuinness. Her club set doesn't take things to quite that bookish extreme, concerning itself more with dating, family life and unhappy relationships. but it's refreshing to see a young writer-performer with a keen sense of who she is as a person, and the stand-up chops to turn that to her comedic advantage. 7 On Red at The Penthouse, WC2, Sat; LOST Theatre, SW8, Sun; House Of Mirth at Slaughtered Lamb, EC1, Thu; Jongleurs Comedy Show, Bristol, Fri John Shuttleworth: Out Of Our Sheds, Lincoln & Bordon Graham Fellows has been producing high-quality musical comedy for more than 30 years now, appearing in various guises including Jilted John and Brian Appleton, but it's as John Shuttleworth that he's done his best and most enduring work. Shuttleworth is a classic comedy failure: an ultra-dour singer-songwriter from Sheffield whose attempts to achieve megastardom are doomed to failure. That's partly because of the hilariously prosaic nature of his compositions, and partly due to the lack of support he gets from passive-aggressive wife Mary and misguided agent Ken. While these two are likely to make an appearance at some point, the live show is principally an opportunity to showcase John and his vast repertoire of ultra-banal, wonderfully funny songs. A huge amount of first-class comic craft goes into making these numbers the perfectly polished jewels they are. Broadbent Theatre, Lincoln, Sat; Phoenix Theatre, Bordon, Wed Jon Richardson: The Greatest Hits So Far, London It might seem a teeny bit presumptuous to style your latest show as a greatest hits package when you're not yet out of your 20s but it's fair enough when you consider all the stuff that Jon Richardson has already achieved. He's gone from DJing alongside Russell Howard to become one of the most recognisable faces of Channel 4 comedy, courtesy of his stints as a team captain on 8 Out Of 10 Cats and as host of Stand Up For The Week. Where Richardson differs from the common herd of young cheeky-chappy comics is his innate cynicism, and a constant grumpy narkiness that makes him seem older than his years. In the past, he's talked about how his struggle with forms of obsessive-compulsive disorder mean that he reacts to everyday situations differently to other people, giving him an unusual viewpoint and leading to fresh-feeling comedy. Apollo Theatre, W1, Sun