CabVol @ Monkey Barrel, EdinburghA fringe fling is the backbone for a mischievous set with deft jokes and a fresh perspective but some of this material needs another draftAyo Adenekan’s as…
Two Edinburgh fringe shows feature savage send-ups of reviewers. Is this petty revenge or do they have a case? Our writer finds one ‘a hoot’ – and thinks the other let him off lightlyN…
Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghAs a half-horse half-woman who dreams of being a unicorn and performing Swan Lake, Schaal sheds little light but has plenty of sparkleFor a happy handful of yea…
Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghThis one-man comic play, told at breakneck speed and featuring West Side Story-like dance-numbers, is highly entertainingIt’s as if Joseph Morpurgo had never …
Pleasance Dome, EdinburghThis is a spiky, interrogative and surprisingly conventional set from an act who usually pushes standup to its limitsYou can fall victim to your own high standards �…
Monkey Barrel, EdinburghA comic on the verge of the big time offers a ‘very silly hour’ around the highways and byways of her lifeA former winner of the Sean Lock award for comic origina…
Gilded Balloon Teviot, EdinburghWith charisma and craft, the Australian standup discusses childhood sexual abuse in a show with a healing qualityIf fringe audiences know Frankie McNair’s w…
Gilded Balloon TeviotPerformer cleared of death of her roommate in Italy uses new motherhood as framework for her defiant comedy show‘Welcome to the most controversial show on the fringe!�…
Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghThe fast-talking comic considers fraternity culture, gender discrimination and an unrequited crush in a cleverly engineered showFrom the outset, Olga Koch’s s…
Monkey Barrel, EdinburghThe SNL UK star’s romantic failures and house-share humiliations make for a fun hour of downbeat yet twinkling comedyA recent star of Saturday Night Live UK, Paddy …
Forget cheesy acts, these days cruise ships boast the cutting edge tech to stage hip West End productions and Olivier award-winning musicals – and young people are loving itThe phrase “c…
London ColiseumA quartet of conjurors, calling themselves the Horsemen, perform fine feats of escapology and mentalism that are undermined by smoke, lasers and pomposityIs there an opposite …
Underbelly Boulevard Soho, LondonA grab-bag of awkward ‘lessons learned’ by a middle-aged entertainer reflecting on her journey, the US comic’s song-filled show has savour and schmaltz…
Royal Albert Hall, LondonShiny-suited and slick, the US standup fired off peppy and sometimes taboo-teasing gags about his cultural identity, married life and visits to a fertility clinicYou…
Soho theatre, LondonThe co-host of Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update delivers an expertly constructed set of jokes about her quest to live a more embodied lifeAfter serving an eye-catch…
Elf Lyons mixes humour and heartbreak, Frank Skinner works the crowd, Kristen Schaal returns with a secret – and one man sings the same song over and over againNo fringe festival has been …
Watford Palace theatreThere’s plenty of devilment as the Pennsylvanian flies the flag for the magnificence of women and riffs on pregnancyThe Best Job in the World, Michelle Wolf’s touri…
Underbelly Boulevard, LondonAudience members become unsuspecting mind-readers, and numbers disappear from their memory, in this hugely entertaining showAn audience member is on stage, their …
Leicester Square theatre, LondonThe comic delivers gags about her life and neighbourhood with choice descriptions and brutal punchlines‘What comes out of here,” says Fatiha El-Ghorri, in…
The unsettling performance artist, who has made some electrifying stage shows in his time, is taking a leap into literature with an eye-opening book, In Pursuit of a Wonderful Nothing. A har…
The Crescent, YorkThe comedian addresses a relationship breakup via The Waste Land, Aldi and a dimwit estate agentHow has it come to this? That’s what new show Tilting at Windmills finds J…
Bush theatre, LondonMarried aspiring standups confront on stage what they’re concealing in real life, in Piers Black’s compelling two-handerStandup is performance in extremis, self-proje…
When she broke through the glass ceiling and became chancellor, Reeves found her office had its own latrine. Rosie Holt reveals why she turned the story into a play called Churchill’s Urin…
Connaught theatre, Worthing Balloons meet the sharper points of competitive parenting over a weekend of back-to-back kids’ parties, in this broad comedy of social mannersSome of my most tr…
Glee Club, GlasgowThe masc lesbian comic from New York delivers a superb set with big laughs and twisty logicOld-school standup celebrating the traditional masculine virtues? It’s fallen a…