Cancel culture, faltering fatherhood and the life of a tennis champ are dramatised as standups including Ivo Graham, Anna Morris and Adam Riches take a theatrical path this summerSam Kissajukian spent 10 years on the Australian standup circuit but incr…
Continue ReadingSummerhall, EdinburghTim Etchells’ looping performance piece with Bert and Nasi replays a simple restaurant scene over and over with hilarious resultsLike a volley of Ken Dodd jokes or one of the more circular songs by Sparks, L’Addition tickles its au…
Continue ReadingPleasance Courtyard, EdinburghBased on real interviews, these verbatim-style sketches are often candid and funny, with some emotional revelationsJeremy rubs his nipples and calls Meryl’s vagina “David Schwimmer”. She has dubbed his todger Roger – which…
Continue ReadingPleasance Courtyard, EdinburghThe Australian comedian’s rocky 2023 is explored in PowerPoint, SMS exchanges, rap, musical comedy and online videosThe year 2023 was the worst of Lou Wall’s life, they tell us, at the start of a set recently shortlisted f…
Continue ReadingShe used to love cutting a rug – until she gave up drinking. Now, the comic has used dance to heal her wounded self-esteem – and explore the funny side of contemporary choreographyStephanie Laing admits she hasn’t been very kind to her body over the ye…
Continue ReadingPleasance Courtyard, EdinburghThe irrepressible aesthete, and lapsed primary school teacher, underwent medical trials to fund this effervescent show – and has since been hospitalisedThere’s breaking the bank to perform at the fringe – then there’s risk…
Continue ReadingPleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Witnessing 9/11 from school as a six-year-old is one of many mental distresses recounted in the New York comic’s often piercingly bleak setWhenever you think trauma-comedy has reached its apogee, along comes a show to mak…
Continue ReadingThere are benefits and perils in talking about your personal experiences – as Richard Gadd found after his TV show went viral. So how are Edinburgh acts handling it this year?‘If you’re not in an OK place, you’re just re-traumatising yourself,” says An…
Continue ReadingPleasance Courtyard, EdinburghThe American standup and sitcom writer delivers a show of ticklish suspense that somersaults with invention and surpriseNot all comedy shows need weighty themes or moments of bare-all vulnerability just before curtain-fall…
Continue ReadingStandup Olga Koch, whose dad was once the deputy prime minister of Russia, is weighing in on the debate about class and wealth in the industry in an unusual way – by addressing it head-onNo Edinburgh fringe is complete without a strident conversation a…
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