Making Love with David Magidoff review – instant improv musical based on Fran Healy’s teenage infidelity

Assembly George Square, EdinburghThe US comic’s troupe tell the tale of a special guest’s romantic encounter, in this case Travis’s frontman – but their incoherence makes for a scatty if fun showIt’s a lovely format for improv: a special guest tells Da…

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Making Love with David Magidoff review – instant improv musical based on Fran Healy’s teenage infidelity

Assembly George Square, EdinburghThe US comic’s troupe tell the tale of a special guest’s romantic encounter, in this case Travis’s frontman – but their incoherence makes for a scatty if fun showIt’s a lovely format for improv: a special guest tells Da…

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‘I painted myself blue – but got skin problems’: how four Edinburgh stars created their weird characters

From a cake-baking Elton John to possibly the most horrible man in the world, comedians reveal how they get in character – and how far they can push thingsIn the Covid lockdowns, I was drawing all these silly things, and one day I drew Elton John as a …

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‘I painted myself blue – but got skin problems’: how four Edinburgh stars created their weird characters

From a cake-baking Elton John to possibly the most horrible man in the world, comedians reveal how they get in character – and how far they can push thingsIn the Covid lockdowns, I was drawing all these silly things, and one day I drew Elton John as a …

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Magicians and margarine: 10 of the funniest jokes from the Edinburgh fringe 2026

Every year, hundreds of standups from across the world descend on the venerable festival. Here are some of their finest one-liners10 of the funniest jokes from the 2025 fringeOlaf Falafel: I remember thinking, as I taped a piranha to my boomerang, this…

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‘Are you ready for some filth?’ Julian Clary and more on comedy’s great smut explosion

Clary’s back with Fully Dilated, a burlesque star called Entendre Entendre is doing lewd singalongs and there’s an A-Z of very dirty words. Our writer investigates Edinburgh’s smut outbreak – and ends up getting his own fantasies turned into eroticaOn …

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‘I’m not Mr Saturday Night’: the highbrow brilliance of Ahir Shah, past winner of comedy’s top prize

Three years ago, he won the Edinburgh comedy award with a work in progress. Now he’s back with a show inspired by Gerard Manley Hopkins and Friedrich Nietzsche. Isn’t this all a bit grown-up?Among past winners of the Edinburgh comedy award, few seemed …

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Larry Dean: Hellbent review – SNL UK star’s cheery riffs on romance and royalty

Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghEmotionally open and a little weirder than usual, the Glaswegian comic updates us on his recent marriageWhen SNL UK hit big earlier this year, it made stars of several comics just starting their careers. That was not the c…

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Bigfoot Ripped My Dog in Half I Saw It review – Xhloe and Natasha create a monster hit

Summerhall, EdinburghWith physical and vocal agility, the tricksy clown duo trigger an avalanche of misinformation in this feverish treatHere is a show every bit as breathless as its title, stoked by bursts of high-energy 90s chart hits and delivered j…

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Laughing on the other side: the fringe shows turning painful breakups into comedy

Whether Elf Lyons’ high-concept Hollywood throwback, Kate Dehnert’s disorientating rave or Ele McKenzie’s Bob Dylan fantasy, heartbreak fuels fine humour at the festivalBreakups. We’ve all been through them. Sometimes they’re mutual, sometimes not. Som…

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