Stand ups have always been happy to do their bit for charity, but that urge to help out has gone into overdrive recently. It can't just be because of the election – most of these gigs were announced before May 7. But something tells me there may be many more in the future, so BTJ has launched this dedicated page which will try to list the main London charity shows and big ones outside the capital.

Comedians are certainly keen to help out. Sometimes they care passionately about the cause, maybe sometimes they see it as a chance to try out new material, maybe sometimes they think it might be a way of attracting new fans, which is fair enough. Stewart Lee says that he does it for the crisps. But it is a win-win situation for the audience – you get a bumper bill and if you don't like one turn the chances are you will like the next one ten minutes later.

Click on the links below to find out more about the causes and for ticket details. I've had a lot of leaflets thrust into my hand after gigs recently and some shows may have been accidentally overlooked, so if there are any others we have missed please let us know at [email protected] and we will be more than delighted to update this guide. But please support something here – if you are only going to go to one comedy gig in the near future make it one of these. Ideally go to loads.

28 June – MS Charities – John Shuttleworth & Friends with Bill Bailey, Chas and Dave, Toyah, Martyn Ware, Gordon Giltrap, John Otway, Jon McClure (Reverend and the Makers), Leee John (Imagination) and Sooty and Sweep! Palladium, W1.

13 July – MS Society – Adam Hills, Josh Widdicombe, Romesh Ranganathan, Paul Chowdhry, Charlie Baker, Shappi Khorsandi, Suzi Ruffell, Elliot Steel, Andrew Ryan plus very special guest. The Comedy Store, SW1.

30 July – Index on Censorship – Al Murray, Frankie Boyle, Shappi Khorsandi, Grainne Maguire, Doc Brown and more. Union Chapel, N1.