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10 comedians announced for Underbelly's Edinburgh Comedy All Stars at Festival Fringe 2025
"Comedian Olga Koch is going to tell you a scary story over the course of an hour" is the premise of this work in progress from one of the most consistent and hilarious Fringe performers of the last decade. Her show last year, 'Olga Koch: Comes From Money' was her best yet - so it'll be fascinating to see what she's going to come up with to top it. See her at the Monkey Barrel from July 28-August 10. | Contributed
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Edinburgh Reporter
7 hours ago
- Edinburgh Reporter
Join Matt Hale and be part of the ultimate 90s boy band
Take That, Boyz II Men, Backstreet Boys, Westlife, New Kids on the Block and most fabulous of all 4MATT – the very best of the of the 90s boy bands. Who could forget 4MATT's mesmerising single Hypnotised hailed by critics as 'three and a half minutes of pure, key-changing euphoria'? And the guys themselves. Always gettin' jiggy with it, booyah! Mega personalities. Lead singer and heartthrob Matt Hale, backing vocals and cheeky charmer Matty Hail, the international man of mystery Matteo Hayelle and the seriously sincere balladeer Matthew Hayle. OK … so 4MATT may never have existed – but comedy hypnotist Matt Hale was a DJ back in the 90s and always fantasised about having his own hit boy band. And now he's making it come true every day at the Fringe. Impossible? No. Silly? Absolutely! A highlight of his fast-paced Funbelievable! 90s Rewind comedy hypnosis show sees hypnotised volunteers on stage invited to form the Ultimate Boy Band. And they love it – it's a chance to pose, play, sing and dance. It's slick moves, perfect harmonies, and the kind of emotional intensity usually reserved for a shampoo commercial. 'It's amazing,' says Matt. 'We get perfectly synchronised dance moves, dramatic pointing, and a final note that could shatter the glass in a Smash Hits award trophy.' Throughout the show, thanks to the power of suggestion, audience volunteers enjoy an on-stage rave reliving the best of a decade which gave us Britpop, Grunge, Girl Power, Pulp Fiction (and Pulp), Friends, Sonic The Hedgehog, Titanic and great cultural classics like The Macarena and Barbie Girl. The whole crowd revels in the biggest, cheesiest, bangers of the decade, dodgy fashion throwbacks and the kind of pure silliness that reminds you why the 90s were so damn fun. And Matt, a multi-award-winning entertainer from Oz will is always there bouncing around at the heart of the action. So, whether you are one of the Shiny Happy People on stage or just revelling in the laughter from your seat it promises to be 60 minutes of unmissable silliness. It's all about regular people doing daft things on stage (a lot of them set to great music) and an audience loving every silly second of it. Funbelievable! 90s Rewind is for the whole family – but only over 18s can go up on stage – and promises to be fresh and fun, with no two shows ever quite the same. Like this: Like Related
The Herald Scotland
9 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Fringe chiefs thwart 'self-sabotage' public funding bid
Chief executive Tony Lankester, who is in his first summer in the role, has seen off a behind-the-scenes rebellion led by Peter Buckley Hill, the founder of 'Free Fringe' venues at the festival, which sparked fears the society would struggle to secure public funding in future. Read more: He wanted members of the society to ensure there was a 'level playing field' for artists and it was not doing anything to 'discriminate in favour of one show against another'. However Mr Lankester claimed it was 'fanciful' to suggest that the UK and Scottish Governments, who are supported the festival to the tune of more than £1 million this year, would keep putting money in if there was no 'rigour' or 'oversight' into how it was being distributed. Tony Lankester is chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. (Image: Gordon Terris) The bid to rethink the Fringe's funding programmes was rejected by 80 members, while just 23 voted in support. Mr Buckley Hill and his supporters wanted the society to commit to distribute all public funding should be distribute 'equally and equitably' among all artists who take part in the event. Ruxandra Cantir's show Pickled Republic is part of the Made in Scotland showcase at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. (Image: Andy Catlin) However Mr Lankester said this would mean the Fringe Society spending tens of thousands of pounds to administer a fund that would distribute grants of just £6 to artists. The motion put forward for the Fringe Society AGM stated that 'the principle of open access' remains at the heart of the Fringe' and argued that the charity has 'no power or mandate to 'distinguish between the artistic quality of shows, or the value of venues'. Free Fringe founder Peter Buckley Hill has led criticism of how public funding support for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is Fringe Society has insisted it has been an 'impartial, arms-length administrator' of public funding, using independent expert panels and assessors to decide on funding applications. However a key criteria for funding is that it is intended to support artists and performers who 'do not have an existing high profile and artists who face barriers to funding and the arts more generally'. Speaking at the AGM, Mr Buckley Hill claimed most of the public funding handled by the Fringe Society was being used to help acts pay for 'bloody great big posters.' Mr Buckley Hill suggested that the Fringe Society's application forms were 'framed in middle class terms.' And it feels counter-intuitive and self sabotaging to be entertaining or supporting a motion that will have the effect of doing the opposite – not just to the programmes we currently run, but any future initiative or project which seeks to put money back into the ecosystem, into the pockets of those who deliver the Fringe and take personal and financial risk to do so. He said: 'Giving some shows an unfair advantage over other shows is a violation of the open access principle that the Fringe has always stood for and still boasts of. 'Some people are richer than others. We can't stop that, nevertheless we can stop exacerbating that, and instead work in the direction of equality for all and at least level off the playing field.' Stand-up comic Kate Smurthwaite said the distribution of public funding by the Fringe Society had encouraged "an advertising arms race' at the festival. She added: 'We now have a situation in which those of us who don't have funding are suddenly being out-postered by people who are being sponsored by government.' Mr Lankester insisted the Fringe Society 'could not be more transparent' about how the public funding it is responsible for has been allocated and distributed. He added: 'We agree that the Fringe Society should not play favourites. We agree that the Fringe Society itself should not be making subjective decisions or assessments on the artistic merits of a piece of work or of a performer. We agree that the Fringe Society should not discriminate against one artist in favour of another. We want to state clearly that we don't do any of those things. 'Without some baseline criteria, without an independent group of assessors, without the rigor of Fringe Society oversight of the process, that money would never have been made available to artists, full stop. 'It's fanciful to suggest that we can strip out that rigour, strip out that oversight and strip out of that process and funders would still be willing to give us money.' Mr Lankester said the 'single biggest challenge' facing Fringe artists was the cost of bringing work to Edinburgh. He added: 'Supporting them in overcoming that challenge by advocating for funds to come into the ecosystem that wouldn't otherwise have done is exactly the role of the Fringe Society. 'It feels counter-intuitive and self sabotaging to be entertaining or supporting a motion that will have the effect of doing the opposite – not just to the programmes we currently run, but any future initiative or project which seeks to put money back into the ecosystem, into the pockets of those who deliver the Fringe, and take personal and financial risk to do so.' The Herald has teamed up with to make the purchase of tickets for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe so much easier. To buy tickets, please click here.
The National
9 hours ago
- The National
The Edinburgh Fringe show exploring being Irish in Scotland
Burke has brought her new show Mind How You Go to the festival to share her family's tale, featuring moving statues, nuns, and American cousins 'with beautiful teeth and magazine hair.' Directed by Gerda Stevenson, and with songs from Burke's album produced by Duke Special, the piece spans generations — from her great-grandfather's imprisonment for Irish independence to her Uncle Pat's return on the day Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. 'It's all about me and my family, and growing up in Ireland and my Catholic childhood,' Burke explains. 'And I suppose now, because I live in Scotland, looking back at that with a lens of being older and an immigrant. The themes in this piece are immigration, religion, independence - Irish independence - and Spike Island, a militant prison in Ireland and also about, you know, family. READ MORE: Emotional Fringe play tells powerful story of students lost in Lockerbie bombing "There's quite a lot of fun and comedy in it as there always is in families.' Bafta Scotland winner Stevenson agrees that the universality of those themes is key. 'We all come from somewhere, and so it's very much about all of that. It's also about music because Michelle is a wonderful singer and songwriter. The show is filled with those songs and the songs are built into the show and the storytelling. So, music, storytelling, history.' What makes Mind How You Go distinctive is the way it draws on real artefacts from Burke's life. 'All these objects that we have in the show, which are real from her life. And there's something about objects that have kind of sat there silently and witnessed things going on. There's something very eloquent about objects. And we all have them," Stevenson shared. Burke added: 'I do carry my granny's rosary beads and miraculous medals. I don't go to mass anymore and I'm a complete and utter hypocrite, but I do have them.' Music runs through the piece, with songs from Burke's new album co-written with Duke Special, Kathryn Williams, and others. 'One of the songs on the album is set — we've set a poem written by my great-grand uncle that he wrote while he was a prisoner on Spike Island. It does feel special to put music to something that was written by him over 100 years ago.' Creating a work for the Fringe also brings its own challenges — particularly the strict turnaround times in venues. 'You cannot go on longer than your slot, and you've got a 15 minute get in and get out,' Stevenson shared. 'So it has to be very simple, which it is, and brilliantly designed by Jessica Brettle. She's fantastic, and she's designed this very simple but beautiful set that we can hopefully put up in 15 minutes and start the show and then get it down in 15 minutes because the venue will not tolerate anything other than that.' The discipline of sticking to time has shaped the performance itself. 'I have to stick to the script. I find that really tricky because sometimes I could go off on a bit of a tangent," Burke laughs. READ MORE: I tried to go to 10 Fringe shows in one day. Here's what happened Stevenson adds: "This is the first show where we've actually had really quite a definite script because Michelle's a fantastic storyteller … and we can't do that on this because we have to finish within the hour..' Still, Stevenson sees the limits as creatively useful. 'Often you find that it's beneficial because you cut to the chase and it becomes a distillation which is sometimes more eloquent than something that's rambling a bit.' What audiences might take away As for what she hopes audiences will feel, Stevenson reflected: 'I wonder, will it make them think about stories within their own family? I hope that they'll think about people on journeys and moving, entering into another community. And I hope that they'll think about that with interest. I think when you meet somebody who's telling you their story, it's a privilege.' Burke sums it up with characteristic humour: 'Yeah, and I'm on the lookout for anyone who could prescribe me some horse tranquilizers so I can sleep.' With its mix of history, music, and deeply personal storytelling, Mind How You Go promises to be one of the Fringe's hidden gems — a work steeped in memory yet alive with song, humour, and the enduring pull of home. Mind How You Go is on at venue 186, Playground 1 at ZOO Playground, until August 24.
