Fringe 2025 – Little Squirt goes for a dip at Portobello
The Edinburgh Blue Balls is a weekly men's mental health and cold water dipping group located in Portobello, Edinburgh. Founded in 2021 by Marc Millar, the group is designed to be a supportive, social space and place of belonging for men of all ages and backgrounds.
Following a successful international debut at Edinburgh Fringe in 2024, Darby James returns to the Fringe with his critically acclaimed heartfelt, feelgood musical cabaret 'Little Squirt' exploring sperm donation and queer parenthood. Super catchy tunes with heft, performed by a total gem of the Aussie performance scene. Performing at Gilded Balloon Appleton Tower until 24th August.
PHOTO Steve Ullathorne
PHOTO Steve Ullathorne
PHOTO Steve Ullathorne
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The National
38 minutes ago
- The National
10 shows I saw in one day at the Edinburgh Fringe
This year, the total number of shows has risen to 3853, accompanied by a staggering 54,474 performances across 265 venues. While not yet up to pre-pandemic scale, the annual rhetoric of the city being overtaken by the Fringe continues, where else on earth could you step out of a show about four people earnestly attempting to 'improve' a ham sandwich with rice and soy sauce, straight into a demonic retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's greatest works, then find yourself in the lobby of a Radisson Blu, deep in conversation with a physicist, before the two of you try to unravel a queer drama where the only person not confused is the director — who is weeping uncontrollably? READ MORE: I tried to go to 10 Fringe shows in one day. Here's what happened Here are the 10 shows I saw in one day, and what I thought about each of them. A Political Breakfast Advertised as a show were comedians who wake up in time join a panel to discuss a range of topics over their morning coffee, I was actively excited for this. The large room I entered was full, and the 40-plus folk were, in true Fringe style, from all over the world. The parallels in politics from all corners of the earth were drawn as we discussed the monarchy to attitudes towards driving instructors. Will Jeremy Corbyn help Nigel Farage become Prime Minister? Is Charles a better King than Elisabeth was Queen? The comedians in attendance (Liz Bains, Kimmie Dee, Matthew Mckew and Jon Hipkiss) were on fire for 9.30am, and Harun Musho'd hosted the discussion incredibly well. For anyone who's scrolling through social media and thinking the country's politics is a complete mess, this will restore some of your faith in all generations. Rating: 4/5 Find out more here. Florence On Monday, this one-woman show starring and written by Honour Santes Barnes opened on George Street. The satirical tragicomic play follows the story of an ambitious young woman willing to use any means necessary to secure her success in the art world. Even if it means taking on a new identity. READ MORE: 'Cathartic': Indigenous Celtic heritage shines in Mairi Campbell's Fringe show This was the show's first performance and the crowd loved it. It will definitely be one of the many stars of the festival, and its exploration of how image, connections, and wealth dictate your way in the world could not be more apt for our times. Barnes, who plays at least 9 characters, gives a masterclass in character embodiment, one so good it rivals James McAvoy in Split. Potentially the best show at this year's Fringe. Rating: 5/5 Find out more here. Dreams of Peace and Freedom A song cycle commemorating Edinburgh-born David Maxwell Fyfe, a prosecuting counsel at the Nuremberg Trials, a human rights lawyer and a key figure in drafting the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This show is performed by his descendants, Robert and Lily Blackmore, alongside Sue Casson with beautiful vocals. The trio gives the audience a love letter to Edinburgh, as well as to the values of peace, freedom and remembrance. I thoroughly recommend Keir Starmer sees this. The extent of research and detail in this show is extraordinary, and what the team has done on a low-budget is commendable. I hope to see it one day with a full budget. Rating: 3.5/5 Find out more here. Zoe Coombs Marr: The Splash Zone Australian comic Zoe Coombs Marr came to the Monkey Barrell with so much energy for The Splash Zone. The premise of the show is what it means to be "in the splash one" of a comedy show, and who a comedian on stage wants in the audience. It is all rooted in one instance when Marr learned Trump fans were in her audience at one show, and she began to ponder about the relationship between performer and audience. Her crowd work and observational comedy was some of the best I'd seen, and it felt there had ultimately been an important topic explored with applause, T-shirt guns, free pants, and laughter integrating her message. READ MORE: 5 of the best things I've seen at the Edinburgh Fringe so far Marr takes us full-circle with jokes multiple times, displaying incredible wit and energy all throughout the performance. Rating: 5/5 Find out more here. Alvin Liu: Love Letter to a Sandwich Chinese comedian Alvin grew up in the heart of Chinese food culture - where families would cook for hours just to avoid a hug. Now living in London, he's facing the greatest challenge of his life: eating cold sandwiches. Although rooted in a fantastic concept, this show leans on the public a bit too much, with audience members getting the biggest laughs. Liu may be funny, and the concept great, it feels like there is still work to be done on rounding out the rougher edges of this particular show. Rating: 2/5 Find out more here. One Man Poe: The Tell-Tale Heart and The Pit and the Pendulum Flyering on the street, I met performer and director Stephen Smith in his full gothic, classical get-up. I was quickly hooked on the show's premise, and could not have been more wow-ed by this "marathon of the macabre". Smith gives a demonic demonstration of Edgar Allan Poe's works, and the audience could not look away from his haunting eyes all show. At several points, the audience collectively took in breath and after an on-stage change of clothes and make-up refresh, Smith's physical efforts are seen by the sweat pooling on the stage and dripping from his hair in the second half as he plays a prisoner of war. A captivating talent, telling legendary stories. Rating: 5/5 Find out more here. When Billy met Alasdair Alan Bissett, award-winning writer takes on the dual roles of two Scottish cultural giants, speculating what (might've!) happened when Billy Connolly attended the launch for Alasdair Gray's 1981 masterpiece, Lanark. Bissett embodies both with his accents, physicality and delivery, and anyone who appreciates Glasgow for its culture will enjoy this immensely. It's an easy show, comforting, and does not leave anyone behind in its historical exploration of Glasgow or Hollywood. As a young writer, this show left me with immense pride in Scottish culture and enough inspiration to last decades, looking at all three; Connolly, Gray and Bissett. Rating: 5/5 Find out more here. Rebecca Lamb: 0 Advice on How to Hide a Body I mistakenly entered into Lamb's performance, thinking it was a different show but the low ceiling room of the Banshee Room's allowed for a small reprieve from the endless Fringe crowds. Lamb, from Nottingham, is innately funny, and beginning her career but was visibly growing more unsure of what to say as the audience grew. Less insults thrown at different countries, fleshing out parts that did land well, and a hint of preparation would probably go a long way. Rating: 1/5 Find out more here. Time Bends Shown in the Radisson Blu, Time Bends is performed by a four-piece cast and although well-staged, was very hard to follow. I was actively intrigued by the premise: "More than twenty years ago, literature student David met an older man called Michael in the bar of an independent cinema. They spoke for an hour, developed a genuine connection, and never met again. Twenty years later, sitting in the same cinema with his wife, David sees a man that looks very familiar. In that moment, David goes back to the afternoon he could never forget." However, the audience is given very little direction on what is going on and as I tried to make sense of it, I looked around and saw other audience members equally puzzled. At one point, the wife and Michael meet, crossing the boundaries of time, but with little meaning attached to why. I and a fellow audience member attempted to decrypt the meaning, when we then saw the director sobbing in the front row. I think this show was trying to be a profound exploration of queer love but in reality, did not invite the audience in to explore with them. Rating: 0/5 Find out more here.
The National
an hour ago
- The National
I tried to go to 10 Edinburgh Fringe shows in 1 day – here's what happened
During my mission, I didn't want to just see and review shows, but observe the city, the energy and how much the public was actually enjoying themselves. This year, the total number of shows has risen to 3853, accompanied by a staggering 54,474 performances across 265 venues. For context, this makes 2025 the second-largest Fringe ever, trailing only the 2019 record of around 4105 shows. While not yet up to pre-pandemic scale, the annual rhetoric of the city being overtaken by the Fringe continues, and so I entered the day wondering; how many shows is too many shows? How it all began AS any good journalist for The National should, I started the day at 9.30am with A Political Breakfast, at the Hot Toddy. Advertised as a show were comedians who wake up in time join a panel to discuss a range of topics over their morning coffee, I was actively excited for this. The large room I entered was full, and the 40-plus folk were, in true Fringe style, from all over the world. The parallels in politics from all corners of the earth were drawn as we discussed the monarchy to attitudes towards driving instructors. Will Jeremy Corbyn help Nigel Farage become Prime Minister? Is Charles a better King than Elizabeth was Queen? The comedians in attendance were on fire for 9.30am, and Harun Musho'd hosted the discussion incredibly well. This was a Free Fringe show. The Free Fringe came into existence in 1996 to try and mitigate what the industry saw as the exploitation of artists by the paid Fringe. "If you see a paid Fringe show, chances are, none of the performers are making any money and they are probably losing loads," Musho'd told the audience at one point in the show where they took five minutes to all plug their individual shows. As he spoke, his fellow comedians nodded. READ MORE: I tried the viral Irn-Bru and espresso drink – here is my verdict Musho'd continued: "That's what happens at most paid Fringe shows, and they are usually screwed by the venues by the way their fee structure is. I think the venues are screwed over on the other end but that's another story. "The only way to make money at the paid Fringe is to be famous in the first place, then have a sold-out run in a big venue. The Free Fringe was designed to do something about that." Artists don't pay for the venue, and the audience is not charged. The whole thing runs on voluntary donations and the fact audience members buy things, such as drink or food, from the venues while they are there. Musho'd added: "The Free Fringe is a non-profit making organisation but is more accurately described as a 'almost goes bust every year' organisation." If A Political Breakfast was a paid Fringe Show, the audience would have been paying about £10-15 each for a ticket, with the average across the Fringe in 2024 at around £12, though prices could sometimes climb as high as £50-60. Musho'd told the audience, don't pay if you don't want to, with another point of the Free Fringe being that the public can see shows before they pay. Musho'd is on the board of trustees for the Fringe Society and he is questioning where the money from the Fringe goes, as according to him, "nobody actually knows". He added: "We need to find out, so I'm actually trying to persuade universities to put up a study about the economics, and the impact [of the Fringe] and where the money goes." Will Edinburgh's visitor levy help see the city see more money from the Fringe? "I think that Edinburgh is unbelievably lucky to have the festival," Kat Brogan, managing director of Mercat Tours, told me after my first show. "It brings everybody here where we can shine, and in this day and age, to have everybody talking and listening and thinking physically together – and they're doing all of that in Edinburgh – it shows us why we were the city of enlightenment. "It's a bit of a scary world out there so the idea that humans can come together and do something really positive, I think that's a huge privilege to host." Having just been in a room where more than 40 folk all discussing politics without any voices being raised or a whiff of tension, I couldn't help but agree. READ MORE: US vice president JD Vance to visit Scotland 'this week' There is also a rhetoric of tourists overrunning the city, however, Brogan tells me that "locals are actually the biggest audience, which is not often reported". Edinburgh locals made up the largest audience segment in 2024, representing 33% of ticket buyers. Combined with visitors from elsewhere in Scotland (15%), local and domestic attendees accounted for nearly half of all Fringe ticket purchases last year. Brogan sees the Fringe as one of the country's greatest adverts for tourists to visit, not just in August, and enjoy Scottish culture – as well as an immense benefit to locals. "The Fringe is a charity, they do work year round to benefit locals, and physically the spread of events is happening, so we just need to keep listening. Ask and listen, they're the experts," she adds, while highlighting Fringe By the Sea as one way the festival is moving out of the concentrated Old Town. Brogan is also on the advisory forum for Edinburgh's Visitor Levy, and is "really excited" about the prospects of it. Councillors in Edinburgh have approved a 5% per night charge, capped at seven nights, which will apply to those staying in hotels, bed and breakfasts, and other forms of accommodation, including holiday lets. "We've got a chance to steer potential decisions and then listen and and take the right path for locals. There's an awful lot of negativity and speculation about something that doesn't actually exist yet," Brogan explains. The advisory forum is meeting in September, where they will be given proposals by the council of what they suggest spending the money on, before members consult and discuss and make recommendations back. She added: "We're the first visitor levy in the UK, there's a lot of people working awfully hard to try and get it right, and I would just urge people to give it a try and get behind and understand the intention, and yes, there's still work to be done, but it's not here yet. "There's still time to make changes and and steer us on the correct course as far as the community and businesses are concerned." Up next ... With the very live concerns of the Free Fringe, the festival acting as an advert for the city, and the visitor levy swirling in my brain, I continued on my quest to see and review 10 shows. Next was Florence, a one-woman show starring and written by Honour Santes Barnes on George Street. The satirical tragicomic play follows the story of an ambitious young woman willing to use any means necessary to secure her success in the art world. Even if it means taking on a new identity. READ MORE: 'Cathartic': Indigenous Celtic heritage shines in Mairi Campbell's Fringe show This was the show's first performance and the crowd loved it. It will definitely be one of the many hits of the festival. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the demographic of the audience (mostly young women) and found that throughout the day, taking in what kind of audience turned up for each show was just as entertaining as the shows themselves. Then, heading back to politics, I ventured to the C-venues on Victoria Terrace. This meant a 20-minute walk up the Mound. It was at this point I realised I had to be much more tactical about my geographical decisions if wanted any chance of seeing 10 shows. With a much-needed coffee, I saw Dreams of Peace and Freedom, a song cycle commemorating Edinburgh-born David Maxwell Fyfe. Fyfe was a prosecuting counsel at the Nuremberg Trials, a human rights lawyer and a key figure in drafting the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Performed by descendants of Maxwell, Robert and Lily Blackmore (above), alongside Sue Casson, the trio gave the audience a love letter to Edinburgh, as well as to the values of peace, freedom and remembrance. Three down, and all quite intense, I needed some comedy to perk me up. A change of pace Australian comic Zoe Coombs Marr (below) came to the Monkey Barrel with so much energy for The Splash Zone. The premise of the show is what it means to be "in the splash one" of a comedy show, and who a comedian on stage wants in the audience. It is all rooted in one instance when Marr learned Trump fans were in her audience at one show, and she began to ponder about the relationship between performer and audience. Her crowd work, full-circle jokes, and observational comedy was some of the best I'd seen, and it felt there had been an important topic explored. "If we get locked in our own zones, we lose all the other stuff and people outside," she said at the end. READ MORE: 'We are sovereign': The people's constitution that could see an independent Scotland "We have to stay engaged, keep looking into each other's eyes, and leaning into the discomfort." Marr is also donating 50% of everything she earns during her run to an aid charity supporting those on the ground in Gaza. Afterwards, I went to Love Letter to a Sandwich by Alvin Liu, a performance of One Man Poe by Stephen Smith, When Billy met Alasdair by Alan Bissett, a very late comedy set by Rebecca Lamb, and an even later show called When Time Bends. You can read all reviews from the day here. I saw 9 shows in one day — and loved it As you have probably figured out by now, I did not manage the 10. I ended the Monday night with nine shows under my belt. I did gain a new sense of love for the city — when I hadn't planned to. Yes, the exploitation of artists must be faced, and questions have to be answered over where the money from the Fringe really goes. There also has to be more work done on shifting further towards the festival's candid grassroots origins rather than the current corporate, profit-driven model, acknowledging when the oversaturation of shows should end, as well as the physical and mental toll on both artists, festival staff and other businesses in the city. READ MORE: See the setlist for AC/DC at Edinburgh's Murrayfield Stadium this August However, credit must be given on where organisers are making moves to improve aspects, such as providing mental health support for artists, creating networking hubs for peers, collaborators, agents, and producers, as well as the continued ultimate success of the world's largest arts festival. I thought I'd end the day grumbling, frustrated by the tourists clogging the pavements, the lack of space to move, and the ever-climbing festival ticket prices. But where else on earth could you step out of a show about four people earnestly attempting to 'improve' a ham sandwich with rice and soy sauce, straight into a demonic retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's greatest works, then find yourself in the lobby of a Radisson Blu, deep in conversation with a physicist, before the two of you try to unravel a queer drama where the only person not confused is the director — who is weeping uncontrollably?
Daily Mirror
2 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Inside Love Is Blind UK Billy's life off-screen including impressive army career
Netflix's Love Is Blind UK is back with a brand new season and a whole host of new singles all hoping to find their perfect match A brand new series of Love Is Blind UK returns tomorrow with fresh singles all hoping to discover their perfect partner. The dating programme proved a massive hit with series one earning a BAFTA nomination, and now husband and wife presenting team Matt and Emma Willis are back on screens for another outing. But there's naturally a massive twist. The contestants will be 'dating' in their individual isolated pods, prevented from seeing each other. Despite not seeing their potential partner's physical appearance, it's only after getting engaged that they'll come face to face before moving in together to organise their wedding and encounter the other couples. This year's lineup features a whole range of fresh keen hopefuls, including a professional vocalist plus a Monica from Friends lookalike. One participant who's prepared for romance is Northern Ireland-based Billy, reports Belfast Live. Who is Billy Jervis Jr? Billy, aged 35 from Bangor in Northern Ireland, works as an Army Physical Trainer. He's remained single following his divorce five years back and considers today's dating scene a "complete minefield". Regarding his Love Is Blind journey, Netflix reveals: "He often feels like the third wheel as most of his friends are settled down and as a result, doesn't socialise as much as he used to. Divorce hasn't put Billy off marriage and he's keen to be a husband again and start a family with his life partner." According to his Instagram, Billy works as an instructor for the Royal Army Physical Training Corps, which is tasked with developing and maintaining physical fitness throughout the Army, ensuring troops are properly prepared for military operations. Army career Billy frequently shares glimpses of his life journey on his Instagram account and naturally maintains excellent physical condition due to his profession, regularly posting his training routines. One example is the Murph workout, where Billy revealed he became "emotional" completing it for the first time, adding: "Especially doing it on a baking running track in 25 degrees heat." The Murph workout involves a 1-mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats, and then another 1-mile run. In some posts he also displays highlights from his army training. Sharing a handful of photographs in one post, he wrote: "Thank you Matty for an epic hand over take over week with the 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment." According to the Royal Army Physical Training Corps, Billy's role would encompass "a range of activities", including physical training, exercise rehabilitation, adventurous training and sports coaching and officiating. The website adds: "Royal Army Physical Training Corps Instructors (RAPTCIs) generally serve as detached personnel within most units across the Army. They are tasked by their Commanding Officers with the responsibility of maintaining the physical fitness of their soldiers in preparation for Military Operations. "This requires a high level of knowledge and experience in order to design and implement a physical training regime which complements the Unit role and training cycle." Prior to this role, Billy served with the Royal Signals, having penned on Instagram during Armed Forces Day 2023: "Proud to serve my country with the Royal Signals and now the Royal Army Physical Training Corps. It has made me the man I [am] today." King's Coronation During the King's coronation back in 2023, the Royal Army Physical Training Corps took part in the ceremony, participating in the procession. Billy shared a photo on Instagram at the time, writing: "Red jacket season is back, starting with the RAPTC Kings Coronation." Will Billy discover romance in the upcoming series? You'll have to tune in to find out.
