Dan Tiernan: Stomp review – can-smashing comic makes you wince and laugh

Monkey Barrel Comedy, EdinburghThe Mancunian’s sophomore fringe set, addressing his diagnosis of gout, is delivered with feral roars and fine one-linersIn these days of intensely autobiographical comedy, acts often rinse their identities, and empty the…

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Bobby Davro is like the clown that time forgot at the Edinburgh festival | Brian Logan

With a seaside-postcard sensibility, the standup delivers racist and sexist material that jars with the spirit of the fringeAs if we didn’t know to expect old-fashioned from Bobby Davro, the three shows preceding his, in his niche fringe venue, are tri…

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Essentially Edinburgh: dance, drag and plenty of drama at the 2024 festival – in pictures

Photographer Murdo MacLeod covers Scotland’s annual arts spectacular, from a musical Mexican seance to colourful juggling Continue reading…

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Chemo Savvy review – cancer comedy inspired by actor Andy Gray is less about death than rebirth

Gilded Balloon at the Museum, EdinburghAlan McHugh’s play explores grief and the agony of treatment – but also hope and laughter in the face of adversityWhat a lovely thing to have done. When the great actor Andy Gray was being treated for leukaemia be…

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Mark Simmons’ ship joke named funniest of Edinburgh fringe

Comedian was in top 10 on three previous occasions – here are this year’s best gags, as voted for by a public panelA joke by Mark Simmons has been declared the funniest of this year’s Edinburgh fringe festival, chosen by a public panel from a shortlist…

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Edinburgh fringe comedy 2024 week two roundup: I’ve seen 50 shows but am I laughing?

Debuts rich in neurodiversity and self-analysis jostle for attention at this year’s festival with a beloved grandma, the Russian elite and a misguided attempt at an apologyWe’ve reached the halfway point at the Edinburgh fringe, where more than a third…

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A Jaffa Cake Musical and The Gummy Bears’ Great War: Edinburgh fringe stages battles with bite

A zesty courtroom drama about cakes (or biscuits?) and a combat epic using dozens of jelly teddies offer sweet and sour clashes at the festivalThe sweet spot for Edinburgh fringe comedy is finding a subject the whole audience can tuck into. Gigglemug T…

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Jin Hao Li: Swimming in a Submarine review – soothing meets unsettling in fringe comedy debut

Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghThe standup weaves real-world experiences of racism with whimsy about angler fish and joining the yakuzaThere are few things more tedious, they say, than listening to the contents of someone else’s dreams. Jin Hao Li seems…

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Lynn Faces review – offbeat comedy pays punk tribute to Alan Partridge’s PA

Summerhall, Edinburgh Exploring coercive relationships, Laura Horton’s play features three middle-aged women in ‘snazzy cardigans’ performing a real-time maiden gig‘This next song is called Kiss My Tits.” In Laura Horton’s play, we meet a punk band for…

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One Man Musical by Flo & Joan review – Andrew Lloyd Webber gets ‘a show about me!’

Pleasance Dome, EdinburghGeorge Fouracres portrays the impresario as a haughty squire, while the comedy duo play keyboard and drums‘Is this show a legal minefield? Yes it is. But on we go.” So begins musical comedy duo Flo & Joan’s One Man Musical,…

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