Four Star Edinburgh Fringe Festival Comedy 2025: 12 shows the Scotman critics have loved you can still get tickets for this weekend
With the physical programme containing over 3,350 shows across 265 venues, it can be a daunting task to work out what exactly you are going to see.
At The Scotsman we review hundreds of shows every year, with the best receiving a sought-after four or five star rating.
This year we have yet to award a comedy show with a rare five stars, but there have been several that have earned four stars.
More importantly, several of those still have ticket availability for this weekend (August 8-10) so you can go and see what all the fuss is all about (bad luck if you wanted to see American star Rosie O'Donnell though - she's totally sold out after her four star review earlier in the week).
Here are 12 four star comedy shows our team of critics would recommend you see this weekend.
1 . Patrick Monahan: The Good, The Pat, and The Ugly
Patrick Monaghan is on at the Gilden Balloon Patter Hoose until August 24. What we said: "His kind of funny is an irresistible force and he doesn't leave anyone behind." | Contributed Photo Sales
2 . Thor Stenhaug: One Night Stand Baby
Thor Stenhaug is sold out this Friday and Saturday but there are still tickets left on Sunday and for the rest of his run until August 25 at the Pleasance Courtyard. What we said: "The boyish, almost perma-smiling comic has an irrepressible sunniness, eliciting big laughs for his carefully apportioned bleakness." | Contributed Photo Sales
3 . Ada and Bron: The Origin of Love
There are still tickets left for Ada and Bron's 11pm show at the Pleasance Courtyard, throughout its run ending on August 24. What we said: "He's highly watchable and versatile. She's a future star, recalling Caroline Aherne, Tracey Ullman or Morwenna Banks' most memorably girlish turns." | Contributed Photo Sales
4 . Pierre Novellie: You Sit There, I'll Stand Here
Pierre Novellie has sold out a couple of his shows at 7.05pm at the Monkey Barrel, but there's still availability for most dates, including this Friday and Sunday (Saturday's sold out, but if you arrive early and queue you may still get in). What we said: "It's rare for an hour to whizz by so fast, for nothing to be wasted...and for one to wish for a show to be much longer." | Contributed Photo Sales
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Scotsman
27 minutes ago
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I survived the era of Indie Sleaze
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It's become the catch-all term to describe the music scene that unfolded at the turn of the millennium, where jeans were super tight, hair coiffed quite high, and style icons ranged from Karen O and Faris Badwan to the cast of Skins and even Noel Fielding. We didn't have a name for it back then, but we were familiar with the notions of scenesters, hipsters, 'The Hoxton Massive,' and everything else that comprised that decadent, hedonistic era of music, fashion, and culture. But these days, that zeitgeist is commonly being referred to as 'indie sleaze.' It does feel quite apt, being a bit more of a social person during those university years. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The term was coined in 2021 by trend analysts and creators on social media. A popular Instagram account, @indiesleaze, launched around this time and was a major force in defining the aesthetics many of us were already familiar with. Searches on Google for "indie sleaze" spiked in early 2022, confirming its newfound popularity and catching on as a way to categorise and romanticise the pre-social media aesthetic of the 2000s. Benjamin Jackson traces his steps back to the '00s to explain the genres that made up what is now referred to as 'indie sleaze' | Getty Images/Canva Gen Z, who were too young to participate in the original scene, began to rediscover the fashion, music, and photography of the era on platforms like TikTok and Tumblr. The term provided a concise and evocative label for this messy, hedonistic, and unfiltered vibe. It became a catch-all because it perfectly encapsulates the entire subculture—the music, the grimy photography, the fashion, and the overall chaotic attitude—all in one phrase. Though it would appear that most of the scene took place in London, there were quite a few areas outside of the capital that embraced the scene, especially around University areas where Scream bars would open up their function rooms for weekly club nights. If you were a student in Lincoln at the time, you might fondly remember Fat Poppadaddys each Monday at Po Na Na's—and probably seen this mess stumble on the slippery dance floor more than once. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad But the term, being a catch-all after all, doesn't quite demonstrate just how varied the music scene was back then, with many genres either emerging or at the height of their popularity (and due a comeback, let's be honest). So what were the genres that defined indie sleaze, and what were we all listening to getting up to mischief back in the day? 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(Chk Chk Chk) perfected the sound, blending repetitive, groovy basslines with jagged guitar riffs and often deadpan, ironic vocals. They used elements of early electronica and drum machines to create a sound that was both artful and perfectly suited for a chaotic dancefloor. The genre served as a crucial bridge, bringing indie rock kids into clubs and electronic music fans to live band shows, defining the hedonistic club culture of the era. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Electroclash/Electrosleaze Electroclash was born out of a rebellion against the overly serious electronic music of the late 1990s. The genre looked back to the sounds of 1980s synth-pop, new wave, and early industrial music, but infused it with a decidedly modern, often provocative, and deliberately kitschy aesthetic. It was a fusion of raw electronic beats, cold synthesisers, and vocals that were often deadpan, robotic, or sexually explicit. The "sleaze" in the name wasn't an accident; it was a celebration of low-fidelity cool and trashy, dancefloor hedonism, and the genre's visual style was as important as its sound. Artists embraced a look that was part disco glitter, part punk aggression, and part B-movie sci-fi. It was the sound of artists who understood the irony and theatre of pop music, using it to challenge expectations and create something genuinely fresh and exciting. Electroclash acted as a crucial counterpoint to the more guitar-driven rock revival of the same era, providing the soundtrack for the more outlandish and art-focused corners of the indie sleaze movement. Garage Rock If Discopunk was the electronic genre du jour during the era, then Garage Rock was arguably the single most important musical catalyst on the guitar side of the indie sleaze scene. It emerged in the late 1990s and early 2000s as a direct reaction against the polished, post-grunge rock and pop music of the era. The genre was a return to the raw, stripped-down energy of 1960s garage rock and punk, with a focus on simple, guitar-driven riffs and unpolished production. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Bands like The Strokes, The Libertines and The White Stripes became international sensations by championing a sound that was both retro and fresh. They brought a sense of effortless cool and gritty authenticity back to guitar music, inspiring countless bands to pick up their instruments. The aesthetic was also a key part of the revival, with bands embodying a sense of thrift-store chic and a swaggering, nonchalant attitude that defined the early years of the new millennium. The success of this movement made it cool to be in a guitar band again and laid the groundwork for many other genres that would follow in its wake. Essential listening: The Strokes, The White Stripes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Libertines Post-Punk Revival While Garage Rock brought back the raw swagger of the '60s, Post-Punk Revival provided the Indie Sleaze era with its darker, more atmospheric side. This genre looked to the moody, rhythmic, and often intellectual sounds of the original post-punk movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s, channelling the spirit of bands like Joy Division, Gang of Four, and The Fall. The revival saw a new generation of bands in the 2000s create music that was less about power chords and more about angular guitar riffs, prominent basslines, and a taut, propulsive rhythm section. The focus was on atmosphere and danceable grooves, often with detached or emotionally cold vocals that evoked urban alienation and introspection. Bands like Interpol and Bloc Party were at the forefront, creating a sound that was both sophisticated and instantly recognisable. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It gave indie sleaze its more serious, brooding counterpart, offering a soundscape for the quieter moments before or after a chaotic night out. Nu-Rave Sound the rave horns - the Nu-Rave horns that were! This genre emerged in the mid-to-late 2000s as a colourful, chaotic offshoot of the indie sleaze movement. It was a conscious fusion of indie rock's songwriting and energy with the visual and sonic elements of 90s rave culture. Bands in this genre embraced a hedonistic aesthetic of glowsticks, neon colours, and a carefree, psychedelic abandon that set it apart from the grimy swagger of garage rock. Musically, Nu-Rave was defined by its unapologetic use of synthesisers, propulsive electronic beats, and often a raw, punk-infused energy. It took the euphoric drops and dancefloor sensibilities of rave music and paired them with the guitar-driven structures of indie rock, creating a sound that was both nostalgic and distinctly modern. The genre's brief but brilliant moment was a celebration of youthful excess, providing a vibrant soundtrack for an era defined by its messy, high-energy nights out - but much like those of us who were out and about during the era, it also had to grow up eventually. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Bloghaus/Bloghouse Bloghouse was a chaotic, aggressive, and highly influential genre of electronic dance music that was completely defined by the internet. Unlike previous music scenes centred around physical locations like London or Detroit, Bloghouse flourished on music blogs (most famously Hype Machine) in the mid-to-late 2000s. It was a fusion of hard-hitting electronic beats, indie rock samples, and techno with a punk-rock attitude. The sound was unapologetically brash, loud, and over-the-top. The genre's rise established a new template for music discovery and culture. 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Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The revival in the 2000s saw bands embrace a sound that was angular, noisy, and often unpredictable. The music was defined by its aggressive sonic textures, complex and irregular rhythms, and a sense of theatricality and urgency. Art-punk was the sound of the scene's underground, a vital counterpoint to the more accessible garage rock and electro acts. It was for the fans who wanted something more chaotic and artistically daring, and it showcased the true diversity of the era's music - the 'thinking persons' indie sleaze, if you will.
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Scotsman
2 hours ago
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Fringe theatre reviews CADEL: Lungs on Legs Ma Name is Isabelle Woman in the Arena
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... CADEL: Lungs on Legs ★★★★ Underbelly (Venue 61) until 24 August Since the summer of the London 2012 Olympics, when Gary McNair's Born to Run saw actress Shauna Macdonald perform the entire text while running on a treadmill, plays involving actors completing feats of physical endurance have been a recurring Fringe sight. Now CADEL: Lungs on Legs takes the genre to a new level with the addition of a static racing bike. Born to Run proved such a gimmick can elevate and bring visceral realism to a play that's well-written, and that's also the case here. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad CADEL: Lungs on Legs | Connor Delves/Steve McMahon A performance of vivid, compelling energy by New York-based Australian actor Connor Delves is powerfully backed up by Delves' and Edinburgh writer Steve McMahon's script, alongside Mark Barford's seamlessly complex direction. Cadel Evans was the real-life first Australian winner of the Tour de France, and Delves tells his story from childhood to triumph, detailing the injuries, crashes and moments of hopelessness and determination along the way. Working up an authentic sweat, he switches seamlessly between racing tops and headgear (provided by an uncredited female actor-stagehand, whose silent expressions populate the play), and sells moments of dangerous action with visceral believability. Through it all, we feel physically invested in Evans' compulsion to do the seemingly impossible while the clock of age and physical capacity tensely counts down. David Pollock Ma Name is Isabelle ★★★ Scottish Storytelling Centre (venue 30) until 24 August Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A powerful reimagining of the famous Isabelle from the bothy ballad Bogie's Bonnie Belle. In the original ballad, Isabelle is voiceless but here, the storyteller allows her to finally tell her own story. Isabelle is impregnated by a man her father disapproves of. She is forced to give up the child, and eventually falls in love again, running off with another man. Lucy Beth performs the piece in Doric, a traditional Scottish dialect, which adds texture and authenticity. Her storytelling is animated, and she often pushes her physicality to underscore the emotional weight of her words, showing clear commitment throughout this spoken word performance. The anger and pain she conveys feel real, particularly during the harrowing scenes where she describes being separated from her baby. We witness a full emotional journey from the rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes of young love to the hinted trauma of rape, the reality of childbirth, and the hurt at being cast aside. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It's a lot to take in, and while the emotional ambition is admirable, there are moments where the intensity and pacing risk overshadowing the narrative. The stage is empty, with no props or visual aids. It's just Lucy Beth, as Isabelle, prepared to bare her heart. Suzanne O'Brien Woman in the Arena ★★★ Greenside @ George Street (Venue 236) until 23 August For much of her life, Jen DiGiacomo was good at keeping secrets. It became her default survival mode. But she also likes to talk, so now it's time to share those secrets, packing a heck of a lot of autobiographical action into an engaging hour. She eases us in with the verbal aggression of her father and violent nightmares of her childhood before moving on to her stutter, one of many challenges she has learned to navigate with grace. Her trip words flash up on a screen so she doesn't need to utter them. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad But the dominant strand of her story is her decades-long journey as a trans woman, from clandestine childhood dress-up sessions to the nasty micro and macro-aggressions she has been subjected to along the way and the nerve-wracking process of coming out to her ex-wife, children and parents. Some of this is eye-watering stuff yet DiGiacomo displays no bitterness. She reserves her anger for the murder of trans girls such as Brianna Ghey while her own experiences are related with black humour, presumably because she knows that she is now who and where she is meant to be, revelling in her newfound gender euphoria. Fiona Shepherd Medium Dead ★★★ ZOO Playground (Venue 186) until 24 August To criticise this dark one-woman show by Eleanor Shaw as tasteless would be to miss the point but, to be fair, the point can be sometimes hard to discern. Bennie (Shaw) works in the afterlife taking calls from people who need help composing their suicide notes. The fantasy setting may initially strike you as a failure of nerve but it does provide an important remove from the terrible reality. This, however, is lost when Bennie takes a call from a famous real-life figure who has taken their own life. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad There's no doubting Shaw's sincerity in using dark humour to confront awful events but it can be tough to fully appreciate. Firstly, by using an actual, almost universally well-liked personality (at the risk of entering spoiler territory, it's Anthony Bourdain) this can seem more than a little exploitative. Secondly, the vast majority of the play is only Bennie's side of phone conversations. This is an incredibly difficult thing to pull off unless you're Bob Newhart and while Shaw acquits herself well you do feel that she's made a rod for her own back. However, a defiant laugh in the face of despair is still a laugh and against the odds this does manage to deliver a life-affirming coda. Rory Ford People We Bury Alive ★★★ ZOO Playground (Venue 186) until 24 August Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad When Rita sets up an online forum for people who have been buried alive, she does not mean it literally. In People We Bury Alive, the burial is emotional – Rita was first buried alive aged three by her father, after he went to the shop for cigarettes and never came back. She was buried alive again by her ex-boyfriend recently. They fell out of love, and he ghosted her. Ghosting is a kind of burial, we find. Images of death abound. Rita works in a funeral home: sometimes, she stages poetry readings for the bodies in the mortuary (or as she calls them, morts). She reads the instructions for a blow-up doll to a doll that she now owns, and this also becomes a kind of poetry. A metaphor for the ideal woman, the doll has no needs or voice of her own, and she is willing to do whatever one wants whenever one wishes. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It is hard not to feel cheated by the metaphors at play – the literal meanings promise such strangeness and complexity – but it is a thoughtful piece nonetheless, as with Rita's guidance, we question what we bury, how we bury, and who buries us. Josephine Balfour-Oatts Our Brothers in Cloth ★★ Assembly George Square Studios (Venue 17) until 25 August A man named Mark (Kieran Kelliher) returns to the Irish village of Bunderr, to inform his old friend Alan (Jake Douglas) that Alan's late brother Chris was abused by their former priest. The hard-drinking Alan is thrown into turmoil, lashing out at new priest Father O'Donovan (Kevin Glynn) and alienated his disbelieving mother (Emily Swain), but while Ronan Colfer's play gives an evocative account of the smalltown, patriarchal trust networks which allow abuse to fester, there's a gap between the intended emotional intensity and the cast's abilities. The capable Douglas, for example, is regularly required to launch into jarring De Niro-esque barks of impotent rage, although Scottish actor Oil Fyne is a real touch of underused class as family friend Siobhan.
