Elf Lyons is The Woman on the Edge
No fringe festival has been complete in recent years without some oddball clown confection – usually animal-based – from the idiosyncratic Lyons. But this year’s offering promises something unusually personal, a reflection on a breakup she experienced while touring her last show.
Pleasance Courtyard, 5-31 August
Making Love with David Magidoff
After sell-out runs in LA, American actor/comedian Magidoff brings to the fringe his musical improv show, spinning comic gold from love-life stories volunteered by different celebrity guests at each performance. Fran Healy, Mike Wozniak and Rosie Jones are all confirmed so far.
Assembly George Square, 7-23 August
Joseph Morpurgo: Highlander 70
The coming man in fringe comedy a decade ago, after the cult success of Soothing Sounds for Baby and a stream of other whipsmart multimedia hits, Joseph Morpurgo now returns with a show triggered by a visit to a car boot sale.
Pleasance Courtyard, 5-11 and 20-30 August
Jack Dee: Jack’s Joke Show
“Guaranteed no new material!” Taglines don’t get cheekier than that on the fringe; no surprise it comes courtesy of comedy’s most enduring curmudgeon, back to celebrate 40 years in standup with a show celebrating his favourite old gags and anecdotes, and the role they played in his life.
Assembly Rooms, 17-23 August
Paddy Young: Will Sir Be Laughing Alone?
One of a dozen young comics whose stock has risen considerably after the success of SNL:UK, the Yorkshireman – who had a best newcomer nod in 2023 – performs his lovelorn new set on the fringe ahead of a national tour.
Monkey Barrel, 4-30 August
Rosalie Minnitt: Clementine 2
One of the great character acts of the decade, Rosalie Minnitt struck the nerviest of nerves with her frenzied frilly-bonnet alter ego Clementine, riffing fabulously on femininity and feminism between the Regency era and today. After multiple tours and a BBC radio show, finally, her second live outing is upon us.
Pleasance Courtyard, 5-30 August
Olga Koch: Fat Tom Cruise
Consistently delivering excellent and unusual comedy shows for several years, not least 2024’s taboo-busting inquiry into (her own) private wealth, Comes from Money, the Russian-born Koch returns to address “masculinity, accountability and the stories we tell ourselves”.
Pleasance Courtyard, 5-30 August
Jordan Brookes: The Part of You That’s Always Screaming
Any new show from Jordan Brookes is an event. No new show from Jordan Brookes is ever remotely what you expect. This year’s offering from the genre-pulverising gadfly purportedly explores love, gossip, therapy and our need to perform.
Pleasance Dome, 5-30 August
Kristen Schaal: The Legend of Crystal Shell
Nominated for the Edinburgh comedy award when she was an up-and-coming star in Flight of the Conchords, lovable US kook Schaal is back for five nights only with a comedy play “about an extraordinary soul hiding from the world because of a fantastic secret”.
Pleasance Courtyard, 12-16 August
Crowd Work with Frank Skinner
In our era of clippable content, a comedian’s “crowd work” – their off-the-cuff, had-to-be-there bantz with the audience – has become their most marketable asset. This new format, helmed by Frank Skinner, reflects that, as a changing bill of comics cast their scripts aside and take on whatever the audience throws at them.
Assembly George Square, 17-26 August
Rosie Jones: I Can’t Tell What She’s Saying
Eight years after her fringe debut, and seven since she performed there for a full run (which, given her telly ubiquity, is no surprise), the devilish Ms Jones returns with her touring set, promising mischievous gags about “being single, the pressures of representing huge sections of the population, and gravy”.
Pleasance Courtyard, 5-30 August
Nish Kumar: Angry Humour From a Really Nice Guy
“The world is in chaos, inequality is widening, autocracy is rising …” Nish Kumar’s latest blurb might have been written at any point since he launched his career in polemical comedy. Thank goodness he’s still here – and back, with a new work-in-progress – to help us navigate, and even laugh at, this bamboozling era.
Monkey Barrel, 5-30 August
Sami Abu Wardeh Hates You
His last-minute addition to last year’s programme, Palestine: Peace de Resistance, was one of the most urgent on the fringe. The British-Palestinian comic’s follow-up looks just as intriguing, a comedy show at a moment of rising global rancour asking: can hate help us? Can it even be funny?
Pleasance Courtyard, 5-30 August
Ahir Shah: Golden
Ahir Shah came to the fringe in 2023 with a work still in development, Ends, and walked away with the biggest prize in live comedy. In his first new set since that richly merited triumph, the erudite Londoner conjures with “love, money, family, responsibility, fear, forever and frogs”.
Pleasance Courtyard, 6-30 August
Ayoade Bamgboye: Small Talk
The winner of last summer’s best newcomer gong, Ayoade Bamgboye made a very striking impression with Swings and Roundabouts, which returns for a short run this year. She also trials its follow-up, turning her perceptive outsider eye (she was raised in Nigeria) on a very British phenomenon: small talk.
Monkey Barrel, 16-20 August
Frankie Thompson: Horrible Things
Yes, the fringe is one big audition for TV panel shows. It’s also a refuge for misfits, mavericks and creative freewheelers. Step forward the intriguing clown-cum-performance artist Frankie Thompson, following up her leftfield 2022 hit Catts with this inventory of horrible things.
Pleasance Courtyard, 5-30 August
Underground Monk Show
Its guru Philippe Gaulier may no longer be with us, but clown-comedy is still riding a wave of popularity, and you can bet that LA import Underground Monk Show – a crack team of hip clowns, dressed as monks, going crazy in a tent – will be the buzziest piece of late-night nonsense at this year’s fringe.
Assembly George Square, 5-30 August
Lara Ricote: Inkling
After winning more hearts and audiences with her turn in Sam Campbell’s batty Channel 4 show Make That Movie, Lara Ricote returns to the fringe (where she won best newcomer in 2022) with Inkling, already award-nominated in Melbourne and supposedly her “stupidest and smartest show yet”.
Monkey Barrel, 5-30 August
Man Sings the Same Song Over and Over Again for an Hour
No need greatly to elaborate on the title of this show by Aussie clown Conk (AKA Connor Dariol). It’s a high-concept festival stunt that – judging by rave reviews from the Melbourne comedy festival – will drive you delirious, perhaps with impatience to begin with, and then with delight.
Summerhall, 6-31 August
Ania Magliano: Peach Fuzz
In a series that was all about the viral clips, nothing on SNL:UK went more reliably viral than Paddy Young and Ania Magliano’s news spoof Weekend Update. Now, Magliano returns to the festival where she was nominated for best show three summers ago.
Monkey Barrel, 5-30 August
Rose Matafeo: Work in Progress Morning Hour
For all the rising standups delivering shows they’ve worked all year on, you’ll also find on the fringe well-loved veterans teasing out half-formed ideas. Few are better loved than Starstruck star Rose Matafeo, a former comedy award champ workshopping something brand new at 11am. It’ll be worth getting up for.
Monkey Barrel, 17-30 August
