Rising stars: 12 new comedians to see at the Edinburgh Fringe
Stand up comedian, host of Chortle Award winning comedy night Comedy Bandits and three time Funny Women Stage Awards nominee, Caroline McEvoy makes her solo debut at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with Train Man - a captivating, hilarious and heartfelt tale of sibling rivalry in post-Troubles Northern Ireland.Train Man is a brand new stand up, storytelling hour packed with gut-punch gags and emotional blows as Caroline reckons with her lifelong battle with her autistic younger brother, who loves trains and getting his own way.
Ada & Bron: The Origin of Love: Pleasance Courtyard (Attic) at 11pm
BAFTA nominated newcomers Ada & Bron invite you to third-wheel an unmissable hour of weirdo soulmates, cursed couples and debauchery. The Origin of Love is an absurd, larger-than-life character comedy for lovers of the strange, stupid and sexy. Wildly inventive and emotionally kaleidoscopic, The Origin of Love plunges headfirst into a surreal mythology of yearning, heartbreak and hope. Told through a patchwork of absurd vignettes, confessional letters and romantic misfires, this genre-defying show examines our messy attempts to connect.
Tickets at https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/ada-and-bron-the-origin-of-love
Rohan Sharma: Mad Dog: Pleasance Courtyard (Below) at 7:10pm
British/Indian comedian and reigning Leicester Square New Comedian champion Rohan Sharma presents his hotly-anticipated Edinburgh Fringe debut - a fast-paced and surreal, multimedia stand-up odyssey through his harrowing/comfortable upbringing. Rohan will talk about how he's faced racism/no racism and will criticise/champion Britain and its checkered/flawless history, all from the perspective of a man whose brain has been corroded/nourished by modern society. Come see truth become lies, lies become truth and the dog become mad. Moving between seemingly earnest confession, cultural critique and sheer absurdity, Mad Dog is an ambitious, stupid and densely layered exploration of identity, belonging and spiritual disconnection.
Tickets at https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/rohan-sharma-mad-dog
Su Mi: Underbelly Cowgate (Iron Belly) at 6:40pm
Award-winning stand-up and drag performance artist Su Mi presents their debut show: an immersive surreal eccentric comedy extravaganza resurrecting every nostalgic moment left forgotten and healing the inner child through play. Seeking to destroy archaic stereotypes of Asian women and challenge the narrative of comedy. Su Mi promises a gripping and raw social commentary on intersectionality, queerness, racism and mental health and a wild exploration of human existence. Join this reckless, spineless chucklehead on a surreal dystopian punk adventure through face melting and untamed (metaphorical) thrash metal solos to your own self discovery.
Tickets at https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/su-mi-thismotherphucker
Becky Umbers: Put that Cat Back in the Bag: Assembly Roxy (Snug Bar) at 8:40pm
In her debut hour at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, New Zealand's award-winning comedian Becky Umbers dives into the delicate art of keeping your metaphorical cat (inner weirdo) hidden in a bag. A joyous hour of unique storytelling and observational stand up, told with the voice of a kids cartoon and the cheeky adult wit that has quickly made Becky one of the most exciting rising stars on the comedy circuit. With a distinctive take on life and the voice to match, Put That Cat Back in the Bag sees Becky hilariously exploring why we're often encouraged to hide our quirks in an attempt to fit in with our peers.
Tickets at https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/becky-umbers-put-that-cat-back-in-the-bag
Cabbage the Clown: Cinemadrome: Underbelly Buttercup at 9:45pm
Minimum wage cinema employee turned multi-award winning tragic fool with over 8 million views online, Cabbage The Clown makes their hotly anticipated Edinburgh Fringe Festival debut with a genre-busting hour of multimedia drag-clowning about queer heartbreak, consumerism and the drudgery of working in a cinema. One-part breathless parody of cinematic history, one-part thoughtful dissection of working class career options and one-part rolling around on the floor covered in popcorn, Cinemadrome marries a buffet of genres in polygamous holy drag matrimony.
Tickets at https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/cabbage-the-clown-cinemadrome
Ted Milligan: United: Pleasance Courtyard (Bunker Three) at 9.45pm
Sketch Off Winner 2024 Ted Milligan makes his highly anticipated Edinburgh Fringe debut in United - a joyously funny, character led, live mockumentary which follows a fictional football club and their dedicated fans as they scramble to regain their position in the league. The town of Crubchester has fallen on hard times and Crubchester United F.C. finds itself outside the league. Having been purchased by a 6 year old billionaire who brings in a no-nonsense manager, can they return to their former glory in the 92? Inspired by Sunderland 'Til I Die and Ted Milligan's own journeys around the country supporting Plymouth Argyle, United is a unique narrative comedy hour packed with whip-smart writing and nuanced performances of sharply observed characters.
Tickets at https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/ted-milligan-united
The Mayor and his Daughter: A Genuine Appreciation of Comedy: Assembly Roxy (Snug Bar) at 4:10pm
Leicester Square Sketch Off Finalists The Mayor and His Daughter (Ciaran Chillingworth and Kit Finnie) make their Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut with their Leicester Comedy Festival Award Nominated, folk-horror, alternative sketch show. The Mayor and his Daughter are in crisis. The soul of their beloved village is in tatters, besieged by the demonic forces of modern Britain. But there's a light in the darkness; when they discover a sacred tome - a box set of Russell Howard's Good News (Series 2). They make it their mission to repair their fractured community with laughter. This timely exploration of Englishness in the current crisis of national identity will make you question the rules of sketch comedy like never before.
Tickets at https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/the-mayor-and-his-daughter-a-genuine-appreciation-of-comedy
Douglas Widick: Paperclip: Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose (The Penny) at 10:20pm
Microsoft Word's writing assistant, Clippy, has seen the future and it is bleak. Determined to prove his usefulness and prevent the impending techno-dystopia brought about by Artificial Intelligence, Clippy travels back in time to warn humanity in a thrilling adventure through the internet. Paperclip is a high energy, interactive and nostalgic musical comedy celebration of retro digital mascots, packed with rock tributes to a time when the internet was a simpler place. Paperclip also features some of the astounding musical improvisation that has already seen Douglas Widick become a celebrated performer in New York.
Tickets at https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/douglas-widick-paperclip
Jacob Nussey: Primed: Pleasance Courtyard (Bunker Three) at 7:15pm
Award winning comedian Jacob Nussey spills the secrets of Amazon in a hotly tipped debut hour loaded with his trademark sharp jokes and deadpan delivery. Chortle's 'one to watch' 2023 unpacks the absurdities and chaos of warehouse life, exploring preconceptions, job interviews, stealing, and why things could always be worse. Before becoming a comedian, Jacob dropped out of university, was unsuccessful in a series of lengthy job interviews and finally ended up working for Amazon. From mascots to company scandals, Primed unboxes the realities of minimum wage jobs while hilariously and stealthily tackling issues around working class aspiration, workplace incentives and wealth gaps.
Tickets at https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/jacob-nussey-primed
Josh Elton: Away with the Fairies: Hoots @ The Apex (Hoots 4) at 8pm
Drawing on a chaotic and deeply funny reservoir of memories, Away With the Fairies is a riotously funny and disarmingly vulnerable exploration of identity, humiliation, and the strange places we find meaning. Blending rapid-fire stand-up, with vivid storytelling, Josh Elton spins comedic yarns that teeter between the absurd and the emotionally resonant, from playground trauma to public humiliation. Woven through with themes of sibling rivalry, mental health, romantic love and fairy curses, the show plays with truth and fiction to reveal a deeper honesty.
Tickets at https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/josh-elton-away-with-the-fairies
Steffan Alun: Stand Up: Hoots @ The Apex (Hoots 4) at 9:30pm
Welsh optimist Steffan Alun finally presents his hilarious debut hour. As seen on BBC Wales, S4C, supporting Elis James on tour and performing slightly less than an hour of stand up at the fringe every year since 2015. Steffan returns to Edinburgh to work through his latest identity crisis with an hour of excellent comedy about sexuality, pop culture and, of course, all the best things about Wales. Steffan Alun: Stand Up is a rich, raucous blend of politics, identity and unapologetic queerness, anchored by a proudly Welsh perspective and a neurodivergent lens. Underneath the self-deprecating storytelling and playful irreverence lies a clear-eyed warning about complacency, and a passionate call to joy, defiance and community in the face of rising intolerance.
Tickets at https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/steffan-alun-stand-up
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Scotsman
2 days ago
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6 days ago
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Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... COMEDY Sophie Garrad: Poor Little Rich Girl ★★★★ Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) until 25 August Affluent kids assuaging guilt at their privilege by gently spoofing it are ten a trustfund at the Edinburgh Fringe. But Sophie Garrad makes no apologies for the start she had in life, the ski holidays and exotic pets, the little tyrant she was to her nannies. 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JAY RICHARDSON COMEDY Dan Rath: Tropical Depression ★★★★ Monkey Barrel Comedy (Cabaret Voltaire) (Venue 338) until 24 August A late but always enlivening addition to the Fringe, Dan Rath's renegade brilliance impresses every time you see it crank into operation. Eschewing eye contact, typically muttering about how he's 'not doing well', the Australian stand-up is contemptuous of the compulsion for comics sharing their ADHD diagnosis. His singular autism, supplemented by bipolar and PTSD if you give credence to his superbly crafted gags about them, is so much, so integral a part of his persona that he scarcely need shout about it, showing not telling in the main. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The straining effort of social interaction for Rath is conveyed by the extreme lengths a barista goes to in order to avoid his small talk, the attraction or otherwise of introverts and extroverts explored. The comic would much rather sit in a friend's blatant lie than acknowledge the implications, though he interrogates modern social buzzwords such as 'gaslighting' and 'ghosting', finding them wanting when scrutinised through the prism of his flights of fantasy. Two striking aspects of his rare imagination and instinctive, elevated whimsy are that he's topical, more so than many acts labelled political. And edgy, without grandstanding. The conflict in the Middle East, North Korea, famine, child soldiers, 9/11, the Holocaust and high school shootings all feature here. Yet Rath is neither satirical or showy in the nominative possibilities of 'Benjamin Netanyahu' or the fashions in Pyongyang, these are just the materials at his agitated mind's disposal, subjects swerved by others perhaps because it takes great originality to make them funny. Of those routines that don't quite land with the audience, he simply mutters: 'You build a statue by taking away the clay'. A one-man expression of neurodiversity, Rath remains a stiff, awkward performer but the most sublime, cracked writer, an absolute artist in bleak hilarity. JAY RICHARDSON COMEDY Old God ★★★ Assembly Roxy (Venue 139) until 24 August A multi-layered clowning spectacle and satire for these chaotic times, Alec Jones-Trujillo's creation Old God is an effortlessly charismatic wag, resplendent in his arch badinage and capering playfulness. An immortal being, garbed in the classic appearance of the Pierrot, his mischievousness is attested to by the ribald mime he delivers in front of his Gardens of Versailles backdrop, the artist's brushwork and the price he paid for it eliciting snippy comment. Spanning the breadth of recorded space and time, aspiring to the majesty of mythology, Old God is nevertheless bang up to date, performing the compelling wordless piece 'Jeffrey Bezos Has a Dirty Little Secret' and delivering folksy parable on the divisiveness of social media. Reciting T.S. Elliot's The Wasteland, peering around, and popping out from behind the fourth wall before discarding it entirely, Jones-Trujillo becomes increasingly reflexive, sending up his motives for making such perverse art in a narrowly commercialised world. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad There are occasional longueurs, characterised by expectation rather than sustained laughter. But Old God contains multitudes. And it's to be hoped that he revisits this mortal plain and bestows his theatrically lush storytelling once again, perhaps in a more tightly focused production. JAY RICHARDSON COMEDY Brett Blake – Little Scallywag ★★★★ Assembly George Square Studios Venue 17) until 24 August Growing up in a 'shit', isolated town in Western Australia, Brett Blake was forever in detention, a tearaway whose old-fashioned, restless flavour of ADHD led to his teachers taking desperate, literal measures to tire him out. Not a bad kid exactly but a 'scallywag'. Or 'turd' as he called himself in the original Antipodean production of this show. However, one ill-fated night in his teenage life, his weakness for mischief, class envy of the snootier town up the hill and a rather gallant defence of his school crush created a perfect storm of violent confrontation with the police that made him the lead item on local news for weeks. The thoughtful yet still rascally comic can look back on that pivotal time with the benefit of hindsight, a fairly robust defence of mitigating factors and a bizarrely specific obsession with makes of automobile. His' seems an unlikely redemption arc, not shared by everyone in the story. And he relates his tale with tenderness for the suffering of his parents, vividly rendered recall of just how much trouble he was in and the born-again zeal of one who's survived a narrow squeak, then enthusiastically gone on to make further big mistakes in life. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad There's a wonderfully masochistic, serpentine logic to the way in which the adult Blake is forced to fork out a small fortune to have his ex-girlfriend berate and belittle him in the cause of securing him the mental health help he still needs. But if Blake portrays himself as a particularly persecuted victim of fate, there's no denying he's had it rough at times, while retaining an acute appreciation of his own ridiculousness that allows him to extract big, consistent laughs from it. Beneath his bluff, blustering exterior, he's a sensitive soul and avowed Mummy's boy. JAY RICHARDSON COMEDY Shalaka Kurup: Get A Grip ★★★ Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) until 25 August One of the rising stars of the UK circuit, Indian comic Shalaka Kurup seems born to be a stand-up. Assured and dryly witty, the former engineer with a doctorate in studying trains is clearly on a spectrum of some kind. Yet which? Her move to this country has coincided with her embarking on therapy. And she's been gifted the golden ticket for a Fringe debutant seeking to make a splash – the death of a loved one, who, for good measure imbued her with an appreciation of Moby Dick, Herman Melville's intense, weird whaling epic characterising her quest to find out what's up with herself. With a flavour of intellectual curiousness rather than emotional enquiry, Kurup is able to disassociate from the the autism jibes thrown her way in comedians' roast battles. And, while as ill-equipped to work on a counselling helpline as her fellow students, she showed herself to be entirely dispassionate dealing with, and even seeking out, a nuisance caller with a peculiar set of sexual proclivities. With some wickedly funny lines, Kurup's pursuit of a diagnosis nevertheless feels somewhat indulgent from the first. And despite her show title, the story itself doesn't grab you. JAY RICHARDSON
