The Definitive Guide to Comedy
*** (out of 5) Marathons: Famously not sprints. The 1904 Olympic Marathon was rather infamous, yet might have been all but lost to history, if not for Wikipedia and folks like Nic Sampson to keep the events fresh in the memories for a new generation. As Sampson reminds us, the …
****1/2 (out of 5) Patti Harrison is a woman possessed. By comedy demons. No amount of content trigger warnings can prepare you for the absurdism she channels onstage, whether she’s conjuring up voices such as Bjork or Charli XCX, or opening up seemingly about her mental health and dating struggles. …
**** (out of 5) Is it her accent? Is it her frock? Is it her glasses? Whatever it is, there’s something magnetic about Celya AB that’s draws massive attention to her Fringe debut. She certainly cops to ticking off multiple boxes for industry appeal: French Algerian, bisexual (which she jokes …
***1/2, ****, and ****1/2 (out of 5) (sliding scale applies!) For a moment, it feels quite possible that Jake Cornell and Marcia Belsky’s introduction to their show might be the entire production. But no. This is but the start of a satirical romp roasting performative woke theatre kids, leading into …
**** (out of 5) Voicemails are “dad shit.” But so too was Dunkirk. Soon something you find normal will be. “The relentless march of time comes for us all,” Edwards reminds us. Which might not be that tragic for him, still being only 29. But losing his dad, and his …
**** (out of 5) Is it really all that silly for a little girl growing up in Greenwich, Conn., to want a modeling career or to become a pop star? Not necessarily. Mary Beth Barone, the youngest of six, shares how she grew up privileged, but not so privileged that …
***1/2 (out of 5) My friends suggested strongly that I couldn’t leave my first Fringe without seeing at least one bona fide clown show. It didn’t take a lot to convince me. After all, I’d once worked as a clown (not classically French trained, but still) and am a big …
**** (out of 5) How do you translate social media stardom into onstage brilliance? That’s something Linda Hollywood could teach you. In this case, it’s Kylie Brakeman doing the honors. Brakeman birthed the Linda Hollywood character during the pandemic last year, and this summer has built an entire show and …
***1/2 (out of 5) Laura Davis is thrilled to be back at the Fringe, even if she’s no longer a current visa holder to live in the U.K. She gave that up during the pandemic, which found her temporarily stranded. Davis had just begun a global tour in March 2020, …
****1/2 (out of 5) The idea of chasing fame feels all too familiar for young women Wilson’s age, at the bridge between Millennial and Gen Z, grew up with social media and YouTube, the first age group to actively seek out and obsess over broadcasting every minutia of their daily …
