Archive

Brennan Reece is an immensely affable, charming and likeable standup with just the right amount of self-deprecation and a seemingly endless supply of gags. Ten years after his first Edinburgh Fringe show, he reflects on performing at the world’s biggest arts festival to audiences spanning the greatest agerange,

Try explaining Spencer Jones, even to an astute comedygoer, and you quickly discover that words rather fail you.  This isn't sketch, it's not clowning, and it's definitely not standup, but whatever it is just relax into it.    Dogs has a dog thread, but anything

Pleasance Comedy Reserve has a well-earned reputation for giving a stage to breakthrough talent, and this year's four comedians certainly suggest the tradition continues. Laura Walsh comperes energetically, warming the audience with amusing stories, including about three tapas restaurants in her hometown that sell no Spanish food.

Andrew White’s What A Life! is a warm, upbeat celebration of living life to the full – and, intriguingly, of dying happy. With a well-crafted storyline and plenty of genuine laughter, Andrew takes us from his precocious childhood, when he wore a kimono and befriended Jonathan, autistic, 60 and

Such a shame that a short early run meant no award panellists and few movers and shakers discovered Lianna Holston’s brilliantly high-energy show. This quirky, articulate American improviser and stand-up is already delighting small audiences at London new-material nights, and now on the Edinburgh Fringe. Don’

Enjoyable improvised comedy hosted with warmth and flair by Paul Merton and Suki Webster, alongside Mike McShane and Sally Hodgkiss, with Kirsty Newton adding keyboard accompaniment and conducting games. We are quickly drawn into the fun as an all-ages audience relaxes, laughs and supplies suggestions. A simple kettle inspires

Phil Nichol, a stalwart of the Edinburgh Fringe with four shows this year and awards stretching back to 1993 with Canadian trio Corky and the Juice Pigs, gives us a feelgood rush of a show. Celebrating turning 60 and the joys of free and discounted travel, he launches into a

Dom McGovern lands with the energy, charm and comic confidence of a far more experienced performer. His fast-paced style and polished delivery occasionally recall early Tom Allen, although Dom is unmistakably his own man, having the look of a contemporary-styled Gen Z marketing executive with, he suggests, the

Elf Lyons is indeed a wonderfully particular Woman on the Edge, presenting a show that seems positively determined to defy encapsulation. This outstanding tour de force is a complex, autobiographical and observational show about lost love, and finding one's way back, performed in a period ballgown and extraordinarily

With more than a million social media followers, Finlay Christie is clearly very much of that generation, and if this sold-out audience is indicative, has a particularly devoted following among men in their thirties. Yet Champagne Casanova is much more than internet-brained comedy. Finlay interestingly explores the comforting

Omar Badawy’s delightful debut is a guided detour through identity, belonging, and one particularly eventful journey on foot across London. An accomplished writer for Saturday Night Live UK, he brings an assured, chatty stage presence to this cleverly constructed hour, finding comedy in the absurdity of being an Egyptian

Mike Wozniak is so loved that his opening line “First off, let’s manage expectations” seemed particularly apt in such a vast late-evening mausoleum with acoustics conspiring against audience response. In a more intimate venue, he would not have needed to work quite so hard to make us laugh.

Harriet Dyer is gloriously chatty, wonderfully original and blessed with a very high gag rate. From the outset, the audience - and even the venue tech - were chuckling. Neurodivergent and bipolar, Harriet has an endearingly anarchic approach to comedy, racing through stories about her mischievous mother, gay father, learning to drive,

Hasan Al-Habib is television-ready. A clever, talented comedian with a PhD in oncology, he combines great timing, strong material and excellent callbacks with a great gift for wordplay. The eldest child in an Iraqi immigrant family in Birmingham, he mines deeply personal territory: family estrangement and escaping domestic

Multi-awardwinning Carl Donnelly celebrates his 15th Edinburgh Fringe with the relaxed confidence of a consummate performer whose apparently effortless humorous storytelling has long established him as one of the most appreciated comedians on the comedy circuit. Even in this early work-in-progress, we are treated to something rather