Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghMatthew Greenhough’s buzzy one-man show clashes comedy, factionalism and jazz trumpet into a plea for tolerance between the echo chambersAre we “trapped in separate echo chambers” and can the divides be bridged? Matthew Gr…
Continue ReadingJames McNicholas is used to performing comedy sketches. Now he’s letting his guard down for the story of middleweight champ turned movie star Terry DownesThey called him the Paddington Express. Terry Downes was a ferociously charismatic British boxer w…
Continue ReadingPleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh In a thoughtful sophomore fringe show, the standup reflects on her relationship with a fellow comicSarah Keyworth’s 2018 fringe show – which secured her a best newcomer nomination – fretted at the signification of the wor…
Continue ReadingUnderbelly Cowgate, EdinburghSounds and samples are tailored to the hack comic’s every comment, punchline and flirtatious wink in this fun character showThe hack comic is such a mainstay of drama and caricature – from Osborne’s Entertainer via Neil Ham…
Continue ReadingThe Scottish comedian has drawn on her horrific Glaswegian childhood to create comedy gold. She talks about saying the unsayable, escaping her gangster in-laws and taking on Donald Trump and Boris JohnsonJaney Godley prods her chin lovingly, as she tal…
Continue ReadingSwedish comedian feasts on the acclaim after his food-themed quip tops list of 10 best gags from this year’s fringeThe surrealist Swedish comedian Olaf Falafel has won the Dave funniest joke of the fringe award for 2019. He received the prize for a rib…
Continue ReadingThe Caves, EdinburghThe comic turns his childhood trauma into a warm and deeply reflective show laced with jet-back humourAn iron law of Edinburgh shows is that your trauma is your big reveal. So it’s a jolt in more ways than one when Jonny Pelham tell…
Continue ReadingThe Hive, EdinburghA hallucinogenic trip through the desert provides the basis for a standup show teeming with ideas but lacking true cohesionDesiree Burch is out of the traps at a gallop in her new show: the first 10 minutes all but pin you to the bac…
Continue ReadingPleasance Courtyard, EdinburghKatie Arnstein uses Dorothy’s yellow-brick road to map her own struggles and issue a raw reminder of the urgency of #MeToo‘We saw your boobs! We saw your boobs!” The words from Seth MacFarlane’s opening number at the 2013 …
Continue ReadingPersonal stories – of exile, homelessness, illness and existential terror – jostle for hearts and minds with farts and live bread-bakingIt will come as no great shock that much of the Edinburgh fringe is taken up with people talking about themselves, w…
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