Crizards review – classic double act outlawin’ all over the wild west

Assembly George Square, EdinburghDebut show directed by Jordan Brookes sees Will Rowland and Eddy Hare deliver a familiar odd-couple turn with freshness“The UK’s lowest energy double act,” they call themselves. Which makes the wild west, with its atten…

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Masterclass review – the ‘great male artist’ put through the shredder

Pleasance Dome, EdinburghBrokentalkers theatre company and feminist comic Adrienne Truscott joyfully burlesque the ugliness of machismo in art and in lifeThe great male artist may soon be on his way out, and not before time. But Brokentalkers theatre c…

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Eunice Olumide review – engaging stories are light on jokes

Stand New Town theatre, EdinburghMaking her fringe standup debut after blazing a trail through modelling and activism, Olumide has some promising material but it fails to come togetherFashion model, actor, activist – is there anything Eunice Olumide ca…

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Rosie Holt review – web sensation’s political skits disconnect on stage

Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghIn her show The Woman’s Hour, the viral comedy star offers caricatures of burbling backbenchers and a woke-bashing TV hostIn the darkness of our political moment, Rosie Holt’s videos, in her guise as a floundering governme…

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Amy Gledhill review – juicy stories of sexual and romantic catastrophe

Monkey Barrel, EdinburghWith cartoonish flair, the likable comic – one half of sketch duo The Delightful Sausage – revels in the repeated indignity of being ditched for someone elseThe Girl Before the Girl You Marry, Amy Gledhill calls her new show, wh…

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Coming Out of My Cage (and I’ve Been Doing Just Fine) review – killer karaoke

Underbelly, EdinburghIrresistibly gleeful celebration of the enduring popularity of Mr Brightside, the Killers’ 2004 debut anthem still in the charts todayVegas rockers the Killers have just released a new single but their 2004 debut, Mr Brightside, is…

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Rachel Fairburn: ‘A lot of standups have sucked the funny out of comedy’

The comic and podcaster on her pre-show rituals, the worst advice she’s been given and why routines about serious issues still need to make you laughHow did you get into comedy? I was a chronically shy young person who loved any kind of comedy. I used …

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Laugh? I almost cried at Gordon Brown’s night of Edinburgh fringe comedy

The former PM’s one-off onstage chat with standup Matt Forde belied his dour image. If only he’d shown more of this side of himself to the electorateWhere is the comedy, Matt Forde, in this? Where is the comedy in bringing on to the stage intellectual …

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Shelf review – peppy journeys through gender and sexuality

Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Childhood friends and LOL Word affiliates Rachel WD and Ruby Clyde leave no assumption unturned with their deft wit and breezy musical interplayA venerable tradition in comedy once obliged anyone, on encountering an excit…

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Frankie Boyle review – scorching standup gets laugh after appalled laugh

Assembly Rooms, EdinburghWith Lap of Shame, the comic delivers a set of breathtakingly rude jokes and thought-provoking ghastlinessA friend of Frankie Boyle’s, he tells us, stopped watching standup because it’s either “clever but not funny, or funny bu…

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