Fringe 2025 – Joe Bor: Leave Them Wanting Bor ⭐⭐⭐

Edinburgh Reporter

a day ago

The filmmaker, cartoonist, and comedian Joe Bor made a return to the Edinburgh Fringe with Leave Them Wanting Bor. This was Bor's first appearance here since 2019.
His 2019 show, The Story of Walter and Herbert, was a gentle, humorous meditation on friendship, family and the Jewish experience in the 20th century. That show had a very clear narrative and focus, skilfully interweaving sound recordings, video and extracts from his grandfather's unpublished memoirs. This year Bor has brought a new show, Leave Them Wanting Bor to Edinburgh.
Willy the warm up
In contrast, this show lacked the same level bit of coherence, though Bor was again an engaging presence on stage. He began under the guise of 'Willy the warm-up' an Australian alter ego in a Pat Sharp style wig, who tried to raise the atmosphere in the room. This was perhaps an admission that the room lacked a bit of character, especially mid-afternoon – the 'strip club' vibes not ideal. In the evening, Fingers Piano Bar can have a fantastic atmosphere, but at 2pm it wasn't ideal for a comedy based act; it was a little flat with fewer than a dozen in the room. The 'Willy the warm-up' character actually had perhaps more potential; I felt that Bor switched too abruptly to his normal persona.
Breaking down barriers
Bor gave us tales from his travels and his life experiences. These were told in an engaging way, with some nice moments of interaction with the audience which helped create a nice collective feel to the show. That's very much consistent with the Free Fringe philosophy of breaking down barriers. Bor clearly enjoyed picking up bits of wisdom from some of the members of the audience, keen to find out what the secret of the long lasting relationship was. Some of the best material was actually found in his very entertaining text exchanges with his 'no filter' Mum. Perhaps this aspect could have been made a larger feature of the show.
A sense of acclaim
Ultimately the theme was of Bor's sense of not quite living up to some of his relatives of past generations , especially his great aunt, the chemist and X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin, whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA. This sense of trying to live up to a certain standard of achievement, the search for a 'sense of acclaim', was the thread running through the show, rather than the slightly laboured material on science. Bor shared a number of Einstein quotes about science, which were interesting in themselves, but I'm not sure they really cohered with the show more generally; at least in its present form.
Stupid joke – but I like it
The show how a little bit of a scattergun feel, with Bor sometimes shooting off into tangents, and slightly losing his thread. The tangents were often very entertaining, but the show perhaps needs some tightening up. His clear enjoyment of 'stupid jokes' (aka Dad jokes), was endearing, but perhaps overdone ('stupid joke – but I like it'). More broadly, the whole show was tinged with a large element of self-deprecation 'I think that's the best joke – it never gets a big laugh though'.
In general, the show had many good elements (if you pardon the science pun), but, in its current state, lacks the satisfying cohesiveness of The Story of Walter and Herbert. I imagine that as Bor's run here at the Fringe continues, the show will develop and get closer to its potential.
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