09-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Spending a day at the Edinburgh Fringe with a teenager
Those of us with creaking knees, who have not slept solidly without a 3am trip to the loo for years, do not need that sort of existential gut punch on a night out.
It is, to be fair, tricky being a teenager at the Fringe. The shows tend towards the adult or the pre-tween — jokes about filth or puppet shows about colours.
So there was some apprehension when my 14-year-old and I were offered a day of shows curated by Mel and her team at Impressive PR.
The day started off with Doktor Kaboom in the Pleasance Courtyard — a treat for anyone with an interest in science, with plenty of silly jokes and loud bangs to keep those without interested too.
At one point the Doktor — the stage persona of actor and comedian David Epley — fired a ping-pong ball out of a homemade vacuum cannon at 300 miles per hour across the stage, and at another he imploded a 5-gallon, 20-litre steel bucket.
(Image: Damian Robertson) It was part physics lesson, part slapstick — all very thoughtful too, with messages about curiosity and coping under pressure.
Which was handy for us, as we had ten minutes to get from the Pleasance to the stunning Spiegeltent Palais du Variété in Assembly George Square Gardens for Circus The Show.
The show squeezes into an hour what most other circuses would make last three.
Presented by Australia's Showmen Productions, there were aerial skills, magic, clowning and tricks. Our highlight was Sam Aldham and Josie Wardrope from Children Are Stinky performing some pretty impressive 'do not try this at home' chair balancing.
It was maybe a little young for my jaded teen, but I loved it — and there were plenty of other happy faces in the big top.
Circus the show (Image: FRANK PACKER) The show of the day was Showstoppers! The Improvised Musical in the Grand at the Pleasance Courtyard.
The musical improv troupe has been coming to the Fringe for years, and there is no danger of me ruining it with spoilers given that every show is completely different and dependent on audience suggestions.
On the day we saw it, the super-talented cast and phenomenal band performed Cocoa-lahoma, about a troubled sweet shop owner run out of a Depression-era Midwestern town by an unfathomably sexy mayor.
At the audience's behest, the show featured songs in the style of Hadestown, Matilda and Mamma Mia.
It was a hoot. Sure, not everything makes sense — those five kids at the bottom of the mineshaft are, presumably, still there. And I think the shop owner was maybe three years old.
The joy of Showstoppers is how skilled the improvisers and live band are. They more than deserved their standing ovation at the end.
Cast and crew of Showstoppers (Image: Ray Burmiston) We also saw Mary O'Connell at the Pleasance Courtyard, where the rising star on the UK comedy scene told us about moving back in with her parents in her 20s — a potentially dangerous idea to plant in the young mind of my daughter.
Dilly Dally is her second solo hour and explores family, adulthood and identity. In the tiny attic venue, she had us laughing about the awkwardness of living with Mum, Dad, siblings and her LibDem boyfriend.
I remember talking to someone high up at the Fringe about a decade ago about the struggle to get West Coasters to cross Harthill and come to what is, by some considerable distance, the world's largest arts festival.
All manner of wheezes have been tried over the years, including a box office in Glasgow Queen Street station.
Having paid the best part of £20 for two cheese toasties, I can understand the reluctance. They weren't even good cheese toasties. No sourdough or anything like that. If the cheese was locally sourced, it was because the guy operating the George Foreman nipped past the Tesco Express on Southbridge.
Heading back to Waverley for the train home we saw the American comic and star of series 12 of Taskmaster, Desiree Burch, walk into the Monkey Barrel, where she was part of the venue's Big Show — their weekend stand-up showcase.
The venue lists the Big Show as suitable for 14-plus, but do not expect the rotating line-up of comics to adjust their material for the youngest people in the room.
Desiree Burch was funny, but also filthy. I had to avoid my kid's eye for a good chunk of her set.
The rest of the line-up did not disappoint — we particularly loved the bizarre musical antics of Josh Glanc.
The Australian oddball's sketches and physical gags teeter between the ridiculous and the ingenious.
Cutting about the capital with a teen at Fringe time can soon add up. There are ways to enjoy it on a budget, and the Big Show is one of them, with the audience able to either buy a ticket in advance for £15 or pay what they can on the night.
It was worth taking the last-minute detour and catching the later train back to Glasgow.
