Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Part-clown, part-mime and part overgrown child, Lyons leads us through mythic history to reconnect with a lost world of imaginationIn comedy terms, Elf Lyons has always been less of a thoroughbred, more of a breed apart –…
Continue ReadingSketch duo Amy Gledhill and Chris Cantrill’s solo shows have both been nominated for the fringe’s top prize, alongside acts including LA clown Natalie PalamidesFor the first time in its 43-year-history, male comedians are in the minority on the shortli…
Continue ReadingUnderbelly, Cowgate, Edinburgh A sequinned ‘RaveRend’ and his sidekick Trev help the audience banish sadness in this ebullient hourAnointed with glitter paint, taking our seats to a score of dirty funk licks, we are not so much an audience as a congreg…
Continue ReadingMonkey Barrel @ the Tron, EdinburghOne half of the Delightful Sausage duo undertakes an epic quest with his pals as he deals with middle ageTwentysomethings, there is nothing here for you! So says Chris Cantrill at the start of Easily Swayed, a show hi…
Continue ReadingPleasance Courtyard, EdinburghThe standup delivers bullet-proof set-pieces in a masterclass on threading emotional significance through joyful autobiographyLast year, a late reveal recast Ania Magliano’s lighthearted comedy set as something more meanin…
Continue ReadingAs Duncan Macmillan’s celebration of the little things in life lights up the Edinburgh fringe, 10 years after its debut, the actors who have helped make it a hit all over the world explain its universal power to connectAn uplifting play about depressio…
Continue ReadingAssembly George Square, EdinburghNaomi Petersen and Graham Dickson complete the trio who weave a tangled web out of three words suggested by the audienceBefore she became a star via This Is Going to Hurt and One Day, Ambika Mod trained with improv comp…
Continue ReadingPleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh In this winning pastiche set at a gender reveal party, Doherty plays a monstrous estate agent battling occult forcesCome to a show called Gay Witch Sex Cult, and you don’t expect a host like this. Kaelan Trough is an esta…
Continue ReadingBack for its 15th year, this festival favourite finds a bespectacled primate sitting silently on stage for 56 minutes – to wild applauseThe queue snakes around the bar, stretches down the corridor and up the tightly packed lane to Edinburgh’s Victoria …
Continue ReadingIn standup especially, a joke is indivisible from its context. The ‘you had to be there’ rule should be more carefully observedDelayed in transit with Mr Z, I was looking for a way to fill precisely one minute. I’d scoped out my responsibility in the c…
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