The Definitive Guide to Comedy
⭐⭐⭐⭐ KC Shornima grew up separated from her parents during the Nepalese Civil War, moved to Egypt at 18 just in time for the Arab Spring, and then at 29 found herself in New York City. What could go wrong? But Shornima has a strong grasp on stand-up comedy, so she …
⭐⭐⭐⭐ “When I get done with this, I don’t want to speak to a 12-year-old,” Desiree Burch says of her life as a stand-up comedian in her 40s. But that’s not her nightmare, where her dreams take her career to middle America, only to find herself booked mistakenly to do …
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Every year, at least since the pandemic, Pleasance Attic has played host to one of the most exciting new voices at the Fringe. Since 2022, they’ve included Celya AB, Lorna Rose Treen, and Abby Wambaugh. This year, it’s Shalaka Kurup who’s providing the must-see hour a few flights of …
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Alasdair Beckett-King could make a whole meal out of the fact that his surname and his show title landed him in Pleasance’s King Dome. But why go through the trouble of all those kingly words when ABK will do quite nicely, thank you very much? ABK may jokingly describe …
⭐⭐⭐⭐ The manic pixie dream girl is out. In? The haram pixie devil lady. Saaniya Abbas is 36 but even without adding the furry cat ears to her hairdo, she looks young and tiny enough for a 14-year-old boy to ask her out. In reality, Abbas says she only started …
⭐⭐⭐⭐½ Tobias Finlay-Frasier is ready for his close up. Even if the mere sight of Tobias entering the room for his audition is enough to make any casting director sigh audibly and loudly. But something about this audition feels different from the start. It’s not just that Tobias came prepared …
⭐⭐⭐⭐½ Can you believe there’s an entire generation of comedy fans who never got to see Mitch Hedberg perform live? It has been 20 years since that stand-up legend left us far too soon. And yet Australian comedian Dan Rath fully fills that Mitch itch, somehow writing some of the …
⭐⭐⭐⭐½ Lou Wall is one of my favorite powerpoint-based comedians working today, for the way she casually and chaotically edits and produces musical numbers to the beat of her frantic slide presentations. For this hour, she revisits a viral bit from her previous show and claims to want to tell …
⭐⭐⭐⭐½ Laura Benanti is a long way from Broadway. But her audience can find her just fine at her first Edinburgh Fringe, where audiences might be more familiar with her many TV appearances (perhaps even more so impersonating Melania Trump on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert) than with her …
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Some Fringe venues just feel built for late-night madcap humor. Pleasance Bunker Two is one of them, and while Alice Cockayne might specialize more in wigs than in caps, she proves why she earned her portion of this year’s Keep It Fringe fund (designed to financially support performers to …
