Demi Lardner review – an explosion of animated oddities

Gilded Balloon Teviot, EdinburghThe Australian standup’s show is stuffed with arbitrary observations – and some of the funniest moments on the fringeAbsurdism-gone-haywire won the 2015 Edinburgh comedy award for her fellow Australian Sam Simmons, and n…

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Ivo Graham review – old Etonian’s awfully droll domestic jokes

Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghThe comic lets rip – if only a bit – for a fine hour of standup about new parenthood and his fogeyish tendenciesThe only thing holding Ivo Graham back in previous shows was his own, well, restraint. The old Etonian (he nev…

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Will Adamsdale: Power-hungry puppets ate my comedy career

Pesky meerkats, War Dogs, Basil Brush … The puppets are taking over, says the standup – and they’re sabotaging his Edinburgh showMy reaction time is too slow to be a proper standup. It takes me about two weeks to come up with a decent riposte to a heck…

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London Hughes: ‘I had a blond bob that made me look like black Miley Cyrus’

The standup, writer and presenter on the things that make her laugh the mostRichard Pryor. I remember watching his DVDs and laughing at his jokes as a kid, purely based on his physicality and facial expressions. A comedy GOD. Continue reading…

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Darren Harriott review – confessions of a kiss-chase failure

Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghThe comic relives playground traumas in an attempt to make sense of his stunted emotions in this award-nominated show It’s a common complaint among comedians that Edinburgh shows require not just jokes but emotional disclo…

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Spencer Jones review – unrefined idiocy delivered with care and skill

Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghStrangers’ junk items give a semblance of structure to the latest by this gloriously skittish man-child who revels in the inaneSpencer Jones’s new show is set in his house. He stumbles in late, flicks on the light – and fi…

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Simon Munnery review – Alan Parker goes to war with the modern world

The Stand, EdinburghThe big-thinking leftie is revived for the age of climate change and Corbyn – but is he still as radical as he once was?The last time Simon Munnery was doing his Alan Parker character, the issues of the day were the poll tax, the ra…

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Jayde Adams: The Ballad of Kylie Jenner’s Old Face review – a pop at pop-feminism

Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghThe Bristolian standup’s blunt good sense is deployed to optimal effect in taking fashionable feminism in the Instagram age to taskAfter several shows in which showbiz and song featured as prominently as standup, Jayde Ada…

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Edinburgh Comedy awards 2019: surrealists, standups and sausage act vie for prize

London Hughes and Jessica Fostekew are among the comics on the shortlist of nine nominees, while Catherine Cohen is up for best newcomer The shortlist for the biggest prize in live comedy, the Edinburgh Comedy award, has been announced – and it’s one o…

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Edinburgh Comedy awards 2019: surrealists, standups and sausage act vie for prize

London Hughes and Jessica Fostekew are among the comics on the shortlist of nine nominees, while Catherine Cohen is up for best newcomer The shortlist for the biggest prize in live comedy, the Edinburgh Comedy award, has been announced – and it’s one o…

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