The Definitive Guide to Comedy
**** (out of 5) The Umbilical Brothers are Australians David Collins and Shane Dundas, who’ve performed together as a duo since 1988. I spoke with them for my podcast back in 2017. A generation ago a two-hander live sketch show could be clever, physical, even both. These fellas are that, …
*** (out of 5) A former Best Newcomer at the Fringe in 2019, Huge Davies returns to Edinburgh with his second show, wearing his keyboard and deadpanning about murder. “If this were a funeral, I’d be killing it,” he quips. But it’s a bit more than that, more or less. …
**** (out of 5) At the start of the hour, you’re not quite sure what you’re in for here, as Titelman emerges, talking to her hand as a fake phone, but taking her time settling in behind the mic, all while background piano threatens to drown it all out. Eventually …
****1/2 (out of 5) A former Best Newcomer nominee, Janine Harouni returns to the Fringe with a new hour so polished and timely, she jokes it may just reproduce this year’s Best Newcomer, too. Because Harouni arrived in Edinburgh more than eight months pregnant. Her due date is early September. …
***1/2 (out of 5) A former Best Newcomer nominee, Bilal Zafar returns to the Fringe this year as a newlywed with a different domestic relationship on his mind, a more unexpected one as a new housemate in the months leading up to his wedding (to a white woman!) is full …
**** (out of 5) Two brothers. 1,000 banana slips in an hour or your money back guaranteed? One chaotically tricky masochistic clown show! Directed by one of his Los Angeles clown collaborators in former Fringe winner Natalie Palamides, Bill O’Neill has his own eyes set on the prize, even it …
**** (out of 5) Gays or geese? Buxton or boxing? I confess I may have been confused by this gay 30-year-old’s Manchester accent, a voice he says he obviously wouldn’t have chosen, even if it may sound like a retired lollipop lady and also make said ladies feel safe on …
***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. …
