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Metro
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
Stand-up comedians are being eclipsed by a genre that's about to explode
I've just spent a week as a critic at the Edinburgh Fringe, and there's excitement in the air that's got nothing to do with stand-up comedy. Story-telling stand-up is about to be toppled off its live comedy throne after decades of domination by a genre that's about to explode: character comedy. For the purposes of this article, by stand-up comedy I mean when a person tells anecdotes and makes jokes on stage as themselves, if not a slightly heightened version of them; think the likes of Katherine Ryan, Michael McIntyre, Peter Kay, and pretty much all the biggest household names in British comedy. Character comedy, on the other hand, is when a comedian plays a character that is more than just an amplified version of themselves. Instead, they are embodying an alter-ego or someone completely different. On TV, character comedians have already boomed, of course, with Steve Coogan's Alan Partridge, Diane Morgan's Philomena Cunk and all the sitcom characters in between, like Lolly Adefope's many faces, not to mention Mr Bean. But in the live comedy world, this alternative scene is fizzing with unexploded talent. Last year, character comedian Joe Kent-Walters sold out his Edinburgh Fringe run with his disturbing but hilarious alter-ego Frankie Monroe and with buckets of five-star reviews won best newcomer at the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Awards. This year, character comedian Lorna Rose Treen's 24 Hour Diner People is one of this year's most-hyped Fringe shows. Just a week in and Lorna's hour was fully sold out, and she's even bagged herself a run at Soho Theatre in September: a spot that's every Edinburgh Fringe comedian's dream. 24 Hour Diner people is a delightfully daft romp into Lorna's bonkers imagination, with a satisfying structure and plenty of laughs. It introduces characters in an American diner – a long-armed trucker, a horny teenager, and a heist plotter – with chaotic momentum and clever transitions. While Lorna's characters are brilliantly ticklish, some lack specificity and depth that would transition this show from appreciative laughs into belly-cackle territory. Nevertheless, I can't wait to see what Lorna does next. She's an absolute hoot, and 24 Hour Diner People is an exciting example of what can happen when comedians aren't afraid to experiment and run with their wildest dreams. 'I've only been going for three and a half years… I think part of my early success was because I was doing something so different,' Lorna says in a pre-Fringe chat with Metro. She too is convinced character comedy is having a moment. 'I'm really excited to see so much character comedy coming back and bubbling up,' Lorna says, pointing to the new Soho Theatre Character Comedy Development Lab, which has been set up to hone acts on the circuit. 'It's been really cool to have that place for people to start off. Because when I was starting, I didn't really have anywhere to go,' she says. Lorna reckons outside the clowning and drag world – of which there are many weird and wonderful characters to behold – there are just around 30 character comedians of her generation on the UK circuit right now. 'It's harder to fill a lineup with character comics,' Archie Henderson-Cleland, who you may know as his alter-ego Jazz Emu, agrees in a chat with us, while pondering why character comedians have lagged behind stand-ups in live spaces. But the industry is gagging for character comedy, even if audiences haven't quite caught up with it. 'Characters are still the alternative at the Fringe, but quite often they've been the ones that have gone on to make a really successful sitcom,' Archie says. Lorna agrees: 'In the last three years, the TV industry has now said they only want laugh-out-loud comedy [as opposed to comedy dramas]. So that's great, because that's really turned in my favour.' Rory Marshall is a relative newbie on the scene, having started posting skits in character online during lockdown. He didn't know anyone in the comedy industry, but when producers got in touch, Rory thought he'd give live shows a whirl at The Moth Club in Hackney. Rory Marshall is making his Edinburgh Fringe debut with the brilliant Pathetic Little Characters. The expert hour sees Rory embody a number of everyday men – all of which had the crowd roaring in recognition. With the stage presence of a seasoned pro, Rory delivers male characters we've all met, but have never deeply thought about until now. Through an hour of surprising comedy – I laughed so loud it was almost embarrassing – he dissects these Pathetic Little Characters and stitches them back together with genius precision. Although he perhaps didn't mean them to be, Rory's characters are also a vital and satisfying study into the male psyche and its flaws – some sympathetic, some not so much – which he invites everyone to laugh at with Partridge-esque gusto. We should all be keeping a very close eye on Rory Marshall – because he's about to blow up. Rory was 'really nervous' about doing his characters on stage for the first time, but found The Moth Club a welcoming space with a comedy-tuned audience. But when he tried a regular stand-up comedy gig, things didn't work out quite so well. 'I did this bit in character and there was not one laugh. It was 10 minutes to go, and I was thinking, 'What on earth am I going to do here?'' Rory remembers. Archie agrees. He did a lot of stand-up comedy gigs as Jazz Emu in character and it was 'much harder' than at alternative nights – which I'm told 'come and go' (they tend to blaze bright and die soon after of financial stress). Now he only performs at the more left-field nights. 'I love silliness, and I love escapism. I love all this stuff. And I actually think it's really nice for people to have some distraction when everything is very heavy,' says Archie, while acknowledging this is a privileged position to be in. While character comedy can be pure daftness, it's also another way in to talk about and highlight important issues, albeit less obviously so than a comedian telling jokes about their trauma on stage. 'I think it's such a miserable time in the world,' says Lorna. 'It's hard to be a woman in comedy. It's hard to be a woman doing anything really, especially right now. 'That's where I feel like my power is, to be a woman making absurd stuff feels quite political.' For Rory, whose characters nail little quirks I didn't identify in men before I saw him perform them, he is not actively trying to be political. But exploring masculinity in any form in 2025 kind of… is. 'When you see a man who is uncomfortable in a situation, I find it fascinating to look at how he feels, or how he's perceived, and then how that makes him act,' he explains. What makes character comedians so exciting in 2025 isn't any political or social trend they are peddling, though. It's simply that these performers are endlessly creative and bold enough to commit to 'the bit' – however left-field. 'Character comedians are so creative in the way they're like, 'I'm going to try this, which I wrote yesterday. I have very little faith in it. It's quite daring, quite sort of risky,'' observes Rory. In terms of looking for their – deep breath, 'big break' – character comedians are navigating a wilder, less-trodden path than stand-up comedians. And that's sort of freeing. With the Edinburgh Fringe comes huge pressures for stand-up comedians, who are known to have been made and broken on its cobbled streets. This long history mounts pressure onto each joke, moment and show. There's less room for risk-taking for young comics. More Trending 'I think there's more trust in the process and the craziness of it with character comedy,' Rory says. 'It's at the back of everyone's mind that there could be a casting person in the audience or something. But I think the thing I've noticed is that there's just a love for the creativity of it.' While Archie was nervous to become eccentric, annoying Jazz on stage, he had to do it. 'There are still people that find it annoying and cartoony,' laughs Jazz. 'But this is what I would want to watch, so I thought I'll just do that.' Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. View More » MORE: Beloved Scottish comedian Gary Little dies aged 61 MORE: Comedian Milton Jones shares prostate cancer update after 'dark moments' post-surgery MORE: Comedian Milton Jones gives major prostate cancer update after cancelling tour
Scotsman
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Edinburgh Fringe comedy reviews: Bebe Cave: CHRISTBRIDE Lorna Rose Treen: 24 Hour Diner People Andrew Doherty: Sad Gay Aids Play
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... Bebe Cave: CHRISTBRIDE ★★★★★ Pleasance Dome (23) until 24 August Siblings: Dreamweavers ★★★★ Pleasance Courtyard (33) until 24 August Lorna Rose Treen: 24 Hour Diner People ★★★ Pleasance Courtyard (33) until 24 August Andrew Doherty: Sad Gay Aids Play ★★★★ Pleasance Dome (23) Until 24 August Batilda is not like other maidens. Her sozzled mother is determined to marry her off but this wild-at-heart mediaeval teenager longs to be free. In the dementedly funny and fast-paced Christbride, Bebe Cave inhabits a dozen or so screwball characters to tell this young girl's story. Bebe Cave: CHRISTBRIDE | Pic: contributed Peppered with knowingly anachronistic references (including a gaspingly funny chastity belt line), the feverish hour flies by as Batilda learns about her unappealing suitors, their tapestries substituting for screens in the dating process. Encountering too many 'crimson banners', and worried she'll be forced to wed her dead sister's husband, she becomes enchanted by a charismatic nun who seems to be able to live on her own terms. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad After joining the abbey, Batilda meets the other nuns, all of whom experience Christ in their own individual ways – free from the impositions and desires of men (apart from, you know, that one). She does such an incredible job of creating and performing these characters that it's easy to forget at times she's the only person on stage. Cave is a captivating and charismatic comic actor, never missing a chance to deliver a laugh before speeding along to the next bit, armed with fun props and costume changes. She sends up the ancient (and post-truth) concept that 'feeling is believing', playing with the idea that religions – for all their value as refuges – have always attracted nutters. And those who run those religions are rather grateful for the distraction the eccentrics provide. There are some gleefully dark references, particularly in the way Christ appears to Batilda, as well as the inevitability of scapegoating, all of which add irresistible texture to this thrilling show. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The deliberately ridiculous plotline of Siblings: Dreamweavers gives Maddy and Marina Bye an excuse to muck around in the way they do so well: with an instinctive goofiness that's impossible not to enjoy. They play a couple of scientists who read the dreams of a handful of audience members by placing a dream helmet (a colander with fairy lights on it) on their heads. 'It might get spooky, it might get sexy. Whatever happens, it's not us, it's you,' they warn. What follows is an hour of frenetic physical comedy in which we get silly, made-up glimpses into a few unconscious minds, with characters including Republican country club evangelists with infectious catch phrases, a boy band member with a misguided foreplay technique and a mishmash of augmented-faced reality television people. It's the kind of show in which, for every 50 people wet-faced with laughter, you'll spot one punter who looks utterly baffled, possibly wishing they weren't privy to erotic dreams involving one's own grandparent. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad We talk a lot about the need for authenticity in performance, and, despite the barrage of outlandishness and absurdity in Dreamweavers, it's here in spades with these sisters, who have clearly spent a lifetime making each other laugh, and who work hard to spread that joy. Siblings: Dreamweavers | Pic: contributed Lorna Rose Treen is someone else who's fantastic at silliness. She kicks off 24 Hour Diner People by reminding us that, after she won Dave's Funniest Joke of the Fringe two years ago, a tabloid accused her of killing comedy. This time, she quips, she's going to have a go at murdering theatre. The prop-heavy hour that puts its freakishly long arms around the comedy of strangeness is set in an American diner, where a wistful waitress, dreaming of a better future, encounters a handful of characters. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad By far the most successful are those that allow Treen to demonstrate her remarkable gift for absurdism. The woman who puts her youthful good looks down to the retention of her umbilical is gorgeously original and silly, and I could easily spend a full day in the company of the poetic, metal-mouthed young girl who's aggressively ravenous for her first kiss. Deliberately hammy, and deploying loads of knowingly bad puns, Treen's other characters include a comically indiscreet undercover private investigator and a Bonnie and Clydesque couple with plans to rob the joint. We join in with a running joke, there's some comical violence and we even get to discover what 'women in Stem' really stands for. Anyone who's ever wrangled with an arts funding body will squeal with delight at Andrew Doherty's glorious comedy satire, Sad Gay Aids Play. It's a wonderfully funny show about how a performer's creative intention becomes compromised beyond all recognition, thanks to the shadowy, powerful figures paying for it. With his impish, fame-hungry character setting out to present a one-man performance masterclass (the subject of which seems rather without merit), he begins a series of Zoom meetings with people from Arts Council England, whose faces we never get to see at first. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Thanks to their escalating interventions, he ends up having to make a laboured, derivative drama reminiscent of The League of Gentlemen's naff Legs Akimbo issues-based theatre group. The result is Aids Actually, a 1981-set play about poor Harry, whose mother doesn't accept his sexuality. His dad wants him to be a dog strangler and he finds solace in the gay clubs of London. From the hilariously dark misconceptions about the spread of the disease (not quotable in a family paper) to the arts council's insistence that he depict northerners as being 'poorer, stupider and sadder', it's full of funny-cos-it's-true moments. Doherty's an energetic and engaging writer and performer with an infectious sense of character mischief, and this show's a delight.
Scotsman
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
My Festival – Lorna Rose Treen: 'I play everything from a trucker to a personal detective'
Character comedian Lorna Rose Treen is bringing a surreal show to the Fringe in 2025. We caught up with her to chat all things comedy and Fringe. 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... There are thousands of shows in Edinburgh this month. Please tell us why we should come and see yours. 24 Hour Diner People is a character comedy show entirely set in an out-of-time, out-of-place 'American' diner. It's ridiculous and surreal and silly and like a live cartoon. I play everything from a trucker with really long arms, to a personal detective hiding in strange places. It's dark and weird and whimsical and stupid. Who or what was the biggest inspiration for your show? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad So many TV shows and films are set in diners, and often my characters really come from skewering how women, particularly, are portrayed on screen. I've been watching a lot of genre-themed stuff to incorporate as much of the parody into the show as possible. So for this show: Twin Peaks, Mystic Pizza (thanks to a tip off from Lola Rose Maxwell), Gilmore Girls, Cheers, Saved by the Bell. It's been a real pleasure to mine that nostalgic fake American TV hole. What's the best review you've ever had, and the worst? Being a character comedian around London can be very humbling. Lugging props about, having make-up all over your face on the way home, etc. In this show, I use a pair of really long arms. I was commuting to a gig with my arms, but my bag broke so I had to carry my arms just in my arms. I was trying to find a seat on the Lizzy line when a seven-year-old pointed at them, and said to his dad. 'Long arms! Now that is funny.' Cheered me up about all the other more judgmental looks I was getting. Who or what are you most excited about seeing this year? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad I'm excited to see Ada and Bron, Alice Cockayne, Priya Hall, Lucy Pearman, John Tothill, Cabbage the Clown and the man who works in Che's chippy. Who do you most like spending time with in Edinburgh? Three Norwegian clowns called Marie, Anne Marie, and Amanda. They are so wholesome and whimsical and stupid. Also, Jonathan Oldfield, my director - he chills me out. How anyone manages to do a show without a director blows my mind! I urge you to start using one, it's like a weighted blanket for your brain. Tell us something about you that would surprise people. I've failed my driving test five times and still haven't passed. I imagine this will surprise people because I give off an air of coordination and patience. Thanks for the interview! We'd like to buy you a drink. Where are we going and what are we drinking? Black Medicine. Oat flat white.
Scotsman
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Lorna Rose Treen: 24 Hour Diner People
Award-winning character comedian Lorna Rose Treen is back at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this August with her hotly tipped second hour, 24 Hour Diner People – a nonsense-soaked, joy-fuelled, character comedy love letter to the gloriously ridiculous. Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox 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... Following the sell-out success of her debut Skin Pigeon, which earned her Chortle's Best Newcomer Award and saw The Guardian hail her as "a major new voice in character comedy," Lorna returns with an even more ambitious and imaginative show, set in a liminal American diner where logic is left at the door and absurdity rules the menu. A second love letter to the ridiculous ('I'm so in love I can't stop writing letters,' she says), 24 Hour Diner People offers up a full-fat collection of eccentric, escapist, and delightfully silly characters – all served with a side of proper jokes. Expect to meet a waitress who dreams of flying, a trucker with unusually long arms, a woman who's kept her umbilical cord, a 1960s spy on a caffeine high, and a teenager giddy from her first kiss – all somehow coexisting in a strange, time-warped roadside diner. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I wanted to build the nonsense into a world,' says Treen. 'The diner is a place out of time – a fantasy Americana seen through the eyes of a Midlands-bred woman raised on Mean Girls and telly, not travel. It's the perfect stage for messing about with identity, nostalgia, and reality, especially in an age where everything feels online, uncanny and just a little too curated.' Lorna Rose Treen The show is directed by long-time collaborator Jonathan Oldfield (BBC New Comedian Finalist 2024, Frankie Monroe, Lucy Pearman), and features a set designed by Jimmy Slim – whose surreal visual work previously brought life to Skin Pigeon and has worked with Jazz Emu, Sam Campbell, and Channel 4's Don't Hug Me I'm Scared. Treen's passion for creating 'weird women' is front and centre, continuing her mission to give under-heard female tropes their comic due. Every character she plays is a woman – sometimes subversive, sometimes chaotic, always funny. 'I like taking a woman who might traditionally be voiceless in a story – 'the wife', for example – and giving her a stupid voice, and a ridiculous monologue, and letting her be the funniest thing on stage.' Alongside the show, Treen has been working on series two of her acclaimed parody radio programme Time of the Week for BBC Radio 4 – co-created with Jonathan Oldfield and starring Sian Clifford (Fleabag) – which recently won British Comedy Guide's Best Radio Sketch Show 2024 and has been nominated for the ARIA's Best Comedy Award 2025. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Lorna Rose Treen is an award-winning comedian, actor, improviser and writer from Redditch, West Midlands, now based in London. Her 2023 debut character comedy show Skin Pigeon sold out in a week, received 8+ five-star reviews, two sell-out transfers to Soho Theatre, a second sell-out Fringe run in 2024, and won Dave's Best Joke of the Fringe. It was named one of The Telegraph's Top 5 Comedy Shows of 2023. She has a thriving online following with over 165,000 Instagram followers and 141,000 TikTok followers, where her viral parody street interviews and sketch content regularly reach millions. She is co-creator and star of the surreal parody woman's radio show Time of the Week (BBC R4), recently awarded Best Radio Sketch Show 2024 by British Comedy Guide. Her voice can also be heard in The Sound of Us (Jazz Emu, BBC R4), Nora Meadows' Week of Wellness (Katy Wix, BBC R4), and on-screen appearances include Goblin Solutions (Channel 4), The Emily Atack Show (ITV), and BBC Three's New Comedy Awards. Lorna is also a founding member of the hit improvised true crime mockumentary show Criminally Untrue.
Time Out
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Lorna Rose Treen: 24 Hour Diner People
Lorna Rose Treen's 2023 sketch show Skin Pigeon was a joyously bonkers hour of sketch comedy that was on paper somwhat unfashionable but in reality delivered with such total bug-eyed conviction it felt instantly timeless. And now here's the follow up! Whereas the sketches in Skin Pigeon weren't directly connected to each other, 24 Hour Diner People is nominally set in a diner, which apparently has a working grill. If it's anything like as god as its predecessor it'll be a must see.
