20 years of International English Stand Up Comedy in Switzerland in 2026
This BSCC award-winning platform was the first of its kind anywhere, to pioneer English speaking stand up comedy specifically aimed at multilingual, international audiences.
Establishing comedy club culture in Switzerland and laundering tons & tons of comedy gold into the Swiss joke bank from May 2006, in 2022/23 International Comedy Club aka Funny Laundry embarked on its final year of Funny Laundering.
Guy Stevens, son of well-known British comedy & character actor Ronnie Stevens, arrived in Switzerland jobless. Despite having decades of experience in show business he found no interest in his skill sets locally and during a bout of home-sickness decided to create regular, touring comedy club nights as a means to make a living for his new family, whilst sharing top quality English language laughs around the country at the same time. Founding a regular programme of authentic comedy club culture in Switzerland brought something brand new to the entertainment landscape, filling the (yawning!) gap that existed for professional English language entertainment in general, which catered to both long and short term international residents and local anglophiles alike.
From the first night in Zurich in May 2006 – and totalling 676 shows until the last in 2023 – the club grew into a landmark stage for top English‑speaking comedians. Audiences packed in to see standout acts including Suzy Eddie Izzard, Michael McIntyre, Trevor Noah, Dylan Moran, Simon Amstell, Alan Davies, Sarah Millican, Jim Jefferies, Dara O’Briain, Sean Hughes, Arthur Smith, Paul Merton’s Impro Chums, Frankie Boyle, Jeff Green, Lou Sanders, Richard Herring, Ari Shaffir, Suzi Ruffell, Ed Byrne, Russell Howard, Jimmy Carr, John Robins, Nina Conti, Kevin Bridges, Omid Djalili, Tom Rhodes, Ross Noble, Ardal O’Hanlon, Guy Pratt, Tommy Tiernan, Lucy Porter, Rich Hall, Josh Widdecombe, Daniel Sloss and the legendary punk poet John Cooper Clarke, to name just a few.
A consistent, dedicated spotlight was always given to notable up-and-coming talent in the English speaking stand up comedy world, especially the new wave of non-native English speaking comics, such as Magnus Betner, Christian Shulte-Loh, Dag Soras, Henning Wehn, Francesco de Carlo, Luca Cupani, Sofie Hagen and others, who were all championed as part of regular line-ups as early as 2008. With Swiss comics Thomas Wiesel, Noman Hosni, Nathanaël Rochat and Javier Garcia amongst them.
From the outset an open spot was made available at club shows and for many years this gave the very few that were interested in trying stand up an in-at-the-deep-end experience, sharing the stage with the professionals. Funny Laundry/International Comedy Club offered advice, time and expertise to anyone that wished to learn more about comedy stage craft and potentially take the next steps towards a full-time comedy career. But none ever expressed that desire in Switzerland. Those who did decide to ‘have a go’ usually did so just for fun and so fun, and quite a few laughs, was what they and the very supportive audiences generally had whenever people bravely stepped-up on stage.
However, even the best laid plans of Mäusen und Menschen can’t plan for the whims of the notoriously self-entitled, Deutsch-Schweiz gnomes and from 2009/10 onwards, Guy Stevens and his work were systematically mobbed and kept am langen arm verhungern lassen (starving to death at arms length) in more or less, equal measure.
By mid-2023, having dodged all comedy bullets and banana skins for over a decade and a half, the serious business of stand up comedy in Switzerland was now in the hands of serious Swiss people and their greedy friends. With all the fun, purpose and money drained from his work, the last International Comedy Club show in Switzerland was on May 26 2023 at Mascotte in Zurich. Guy Stevens headed back to the UK with a stack of material. and severe PTSD the following year.
Updated July 2026