For the first time ever, both the ‘Oscars of comedy’ have gone to standups with South Asian heritage. So what do the two performers who set the fringe alight have planned? Lots of boasting, finds our writerTo be crowned the best of the best at the Edin…
Continue ReadingPleasance Dome, EdinburghThe TikTok star follows an atom through time, via a dinosaur, Julius Caesar’s lunch and Van Gogh’s ear, in an uncynical show with an excess of scene changesInjury time is mushrooming in football in response to the realisation t…
Continue ReadingUnderbelly Cowgate, EdinburghAstute, well-built set about suffering and its surprise elimination is charmingly at odds with other festival narrativesWe’ve seen shows about trauma, depression and anxiety. What about a show exploring their blissful absol…
Continue ReadingAs the curtain falls on this year’s fringe, we ask performers and producers how it was for themBy the end of the Edinburgh fringe, anyone who has been here all month will tell you how tired they are. There have been highs – after a tentative return las…
Continue ReadingPleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh The comic pores over the insecurities that attended his twisty journey from Black Country boyhood to TV celebrityThis isn’t the first of Darren Harriott’s shows to alight on a compelling subject for standup, then not dig …
Continue ReadingAssembly George Square, Edinburgh Material about Hindu-Muslim relations aside, this award-winning performer’s material covers familiar confessional ground, delivered with engaging skill and graceIn India, I’m edgy, says Urooj Ashfaq; in Edinburgh, not …
Continue ReadingBut if I’m going to watch the Britain I loved expire slowly, I’d rather do it from the top of the Royal Mile in AugustOn Monday I traversed the igneous peaks of the Pentland Hills from Edinburgh to Stratford-upon-Avon, having finished a run of my curre…
Continue ReadingThe Edinburgh comedy award-winning show Ends is a superb set about Shah’s grandfather, the standup’s imminent wedding and multicultural Britain The cliche about Edinburgh fringe comedy is that, instead of jokes, it’s all tears and dead loved ones. No o…
Continue Reading32-year-old comedian whose set explores race, class and migration becomes first British-Asian to take prizeA show about multiculturalism has won best show at the Edinburgh comedy awards. Ahir Shah, the first British-Asian to win the prestigious award, …
Continue ReadingMonkey Barrel Comedy at The Hive, EdinburghThe Edinburgh comedy award nominee dials up the silly to 11 as he delivers a series of shambolic gagsThere is no more uproarious opening sequence at this year’s fringe than Phil Ellis’s. Yes, it’s really happe…
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