The Definitive Guide to Comedy
***1/2 (out of 5) In her second Fringe, Chloe Petts announces: “No more Mr. Nice Chloe.” Petts reveals her demographics split as her personality does, appealing equally to top football lads and beautiful gentle queers. Does that demographic breakdown warrant a break down from Petts, though? Why is she so …
***1/2 (out of 5) The show description indicates Ania Magliano’s new hour delivers her response to a dreadful haircut. Magliano certainly does dish about what happened to her locks and why, but that’s not the real dirt. Audiences quickly snapped up tickets to see this 25-year-old return for her second …
***1/2 (out of 5) There are loads of dead family member shows at the Fringe, and Paul Chowdhry’s return to Edinburgh certainly could’ve been among them. He lost his mum early in 2021 from COVID, then his father last year. But that’s not where Chowdhry’s focus is at this Fringe. …
**** (out of 5) Born from a German mother and an Italian father, Laura Ramoso grew up around the world before settling down in Canada and starting her comedy career in Toronto through Second City. She began making solo character sketches in the pandemic and has attracted more than 800,000 …
***1/2 (out of 5) As the crowd shuffles into Pleasance Courtyard’s Beyond theatre, we’re treated to a montage of clips from this most recent 15th series of Taskmaster, which featured Ivo Graham as one of the comedian competitors. But in the minute before we’re officially starting the live show, it’s …
*** (out of 5) The downsides for women in comedy or math or engineering or tech are sadly too many. The upside? If you fall within the Venn diagram of those industries, you’ve found the sweet spot for comedy. Somehow, there’s not yet such a Venn diagram in Ginny Hogan’s …
***1/2 (out of 5) As Jo Griffin’s mom used to tell her, “you won’t regret the things you did, you’ll regret the things you didn’t do.” Griffin, now 36, single and sharing a home with five strangers, feels an intense need to embrace her life while there’s still a lot …
***** (out of 5) “If you think this show is therapy, you need therapy.” So declares Lou Wall early in her breakneck breakthrough performance, which turns her 14-year relationship with her best frenemy into a richly interactive media presentation with Wall singing original songs plus raps based on Facebook message …
***1/2 (out of 5) Robin Tran performed as a New Face at Montreal’s Just For Laughs in 2021, and has appeared on two seasons of Comedy Central’s Roast Battle as well as Netflix’s That’s My Time With David Letterman. Of course, Tran can roast herself quite well, too, describing herself …
**** (out of 5) TikTok’s learning machine is so impressive. How impressive? It began sending me videos from Avital Ash within days of me signing up for the app in late 2021. I only just saw her perform live for the first time here in Edinburgh, where the LA-based comedian …
