The Definitive Guide to Comedy
⭐⭐⭐⭐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 …
⭐⭐⭐½ The acts I tend to see playing the Cabaret Bar in Pleasance Courtyard each Fringe tend to be some of the most polished club comedians. True professionals at the top of their game. And Hal Cruttenden is no exception. A Best Newcomer nominee way back at the 2002 Fringe, …
⭐⭐⭐½ It feels like an insult slotting a sprightly character comedian in a spare classroom named Pip in the daylight hours of Fringe. Almost as if the Fringe itself read the title of Susan Harrison’s delightful showcase and thought, well, let’s really make her ask the question this month. She …
⭐⭐⭐½ In her hot perimenopause summer phase, Tiff Stevenson understands she cannot control the weather or a piece of her own hair that wants to go its own way, but at least she’s still got a firm grasp on wordplay. So she blesses us with the imagery of rebranding manicuring …
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Adele’s mother has died since her last proper Fringe show, but not to worry. This won’t be one of those Fringe shows. While Adele Cliff had a heck of a time figuring out how to dispose of her late mother’s unused liquid morphine, she’s the type of comedian who’d …
⭐⭐⭐½ If you’ve never witnessed a performer struggle with an empty room in the middle of the day and question all of their choices, then have you even Fringed, bruv? Narin Oz’s hour isn’t and wasn’t quite that. There were a few others in attendance, and Oz definitely knows what …
⭐⭐⭐½ One of those performances that feels like it’ll be an even stronger hour with packed houses (er, haus’s) by the end of August. After all, Dylan Adler has musical chops dripping out of his fingers, and for his Fringe debut, he’s under the direction of Sam Blumenfeld, who previously …
⭐⭐⭐½ What happened to the double act? Doesn’t anyone want to be friends? Those are the questions double act Soft Play (Maria Telnikoff and Vidya Divakaran) ask and answer in this debut hour jumping across, around and at their audiences this month in Edinburgh. Some duos they portray are legendary (Remus and …
