Edinburgh Fringe Dispatch #3
Comedy reviews from Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Hello!
I’m home and I’m sad about it! Usually, I’m relieved and happy but this year, I was surprisingly not overwhelmed and unwell and it means I’m not completely dead on my return to London. So obviously, in my brain, that translates to: YOU DIDN’T DO ENOUGH THEN DID YOU!? No one is free from the Fringe’s expectation mill. I’m fighting it, don’t worry. There are so many people I was excited to see and didn’t manage to in the end – but that is just how it is! It’s the World’s Biggest Arts Festival, baby!
I must also report that we had yet another highly successful FringeBEAT launch party! The line-up was an absolute dream – Dylan Adler, Ayoade Bamgboye, Madeleine Rowe, Lachlan Werner and Kate Owens – the perfect mix of genres, I still can’t actually believe how good it was. Josh Glanc yet again smashed his DJ set with nostalgic bangers, and didn’t stop even when the music was turned off. Honestly, a phenomenal night. File this away in your mind for next year: it will 100% be back.
This is going to be my last newsletter for a few weeks as I recover mentally, physically, creatively, spiritually. As much as I love it, now begins my annual comedy detox, which will last until the start of September. There’s such a thing as too much laughter you know!
Longtime readers can look forward to my annual post-Fringe rant and I’m sure I’ll have plenty to say, but right now, I’m feeling really wholesome, and have my final batch of show recommendations for anyone still there or going up to Edinburgh for the final part.
I will sign this off with a massive CONGRATULATIONS to everyone working on shows. I think you’re amazing. What an achievement.
And now, here’s my third review round-up of amazing comedy shows:
Comedy shows to see in Edinburgh right now!
Su Mi: THISMOTHERPHUKA
(Underbelly Cowgate, Iron Belly, 18:40)
Kate Owens: Cooking with Kathryn
(Underbelly Cowgate, Big Belly, 17:10)
Lucy Pearman: Lunartic
(Monkey Barrel, Cabaret Voltaire, CAB VOL1, 13:00)
What an absolute joy to have Lucy Pearman back at the Fringe. She’s one of my original fave clowns, and returns with a celestial tribute to the moon. Her face peeking out from a massive shiny moon costume and wearing a cheeky smile, Lucy leads an immediately game audience in an introduction to the moon’s more vulnerable side. She’s got beef with Professor Brian Cox, is under the threat of being eclipsed by the Sun and longs for connection with earthlings. There are props aplenty and a chance for everyone to play – and everyone wants to! All rousing into a euphoric collective ending that ties together all of the audience interaction she’s done throughout. A truly wonderful way to spend an hour.
Joe Kent-Walters is Frankie Monroe: DEAD!!! (Good Fun Time)
(Monkey Barrel, Cabaret Voltaire, CAB VOL1, 21:30)
We’re in hell, and it’s not so bad actually! At the end of his last phenomenal show, Frankie Monroe was dragged to hell, but being dead isn’t going to stop him. The Misty Moon, his Rotherham working men’s club, has been taken over by Vegas Dave who serves £7 pints and pizza in a jar – this time it’s the soul of the club that needs to be saved from the horrible clutches of gentrification. Ever the consummate variety show host, Frankie serves us sing-along songs and the classic games we all know and love (e.g. ‘wine or brine’ and ‘how many sprouts can Frankie fit in his mouth?’). This sequel has all the same bizarre, frenetic energy and chaos of his first hour, and powers along at pace. Even as the sudocrem slides off his face, the character doesn’t slip. Oh, it’s good to be dead.
Holly Spillar: Tall Child
(Underbelly Bristo Square, Dexter, 17:45)
I was totally blown away by Holly Spillar’s talent the first time I saw her as part of a pre-Fringe showcase a couple of years ago. If her debut, Hole, confirmed that she’s special, this new show is simply even more evidence. Tall Child is, if you think about it, a wildly ambitious show about the mental, physical, financial, societal toll of being alive right now – however, the execution of it is so delicate and personal that the magnitude never overwhelms. Effortlessly looping her voice over her own harmonies, Holly talks and sings us through her high stakes, low pay job looking after the creative ambitions of the child of billionaires, people so rich that armed guards stood constantly watching her and the toddler. There is a quiet and necessary rage here, about access as a working class performer and the ludicrous chasm of opportunity between the two worlds. And yet the show is as layered and intricate as her music, ultimately compassionate and moving. There is no other show like this. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. HollySpillar: special.
Sami Abu Wardeh: Palestine - Peace de Resistance
(Pleasance Dome, Ace Dome, 9:45pm)
Sami Abu Wardeh returns to the Fringe with a multi-disciplinary show that encompasses a vast history, a passionate romance and the experience of his Palestinian family over the generations. Combining clowning, his unbeatably expressive face and physicality, and lyrical aptitude for storytelling, he bounces from one wall to the other to a spotlight in centre-stage, regaling us with tales of Algerian freedom fighters, an exiled Palestinian playboy, and the devastation left in the wake of every instance of British imperialism. It’s heart-rending, yes, emotional, absolutely, but Sami injects joy and light in unexpected ways – it’s also wonderfully funny, and raises important questions about what something like comedy can do when it comes to resistance. A powerful and beautiful show from an artist who knows exactly who he is. This is clowning like no one else is doing it.
Siblings: Dreamweavers
(Pleasance Courtyard, Baby Grand, 20:20)
There is nothing more boring than hearing about other people’s dreams. Watching them, on the other hand… Dreamweavers is honestly one of the most relentlessly side-splitting hours of comedy. A scientist who grows his own cress (Marina) and an intern who goes by the name Work Experience (Maddy) read the dreams of the audience using their high-tech machine (a colander helmet). It’s a brilliantly constructed show – with the main narrative running through, the dreams allow Siblings to pursue their most batshit ideas while still keeping tethered to a story. There aren’t any brains that work like these two; they have their innate sibling ability to laugh together, but there’s never a sense of inside jokes that you’re not in on. The audience element is fantastic, with people’s initially reluctant expressions very soon turning to uncontrollable laughter – there’s one particular song that’s in my mind forever, and you’ll know exactly which one because you’ll have the same. Shout out to the small injections from Ellie BW on tech, as lab rat Chlorine, who has the ability to make one syllable funny.
Lorna Rose Treen: 24 Hour Diner People
(Pleasance Courtyard, Beneath, 18:20)
If you saw Lorna’s previous show, Skin Pigeon, you’ll have left with the firm knowledge that she’s got an endless stream of characters she could channel on tap. And here they are! All hanging out in the Blue Tit diner: the waitress, the truck driver with impossibly long arms, the private investigator, a girl in a prom dress and headgear in pursuit of her first kiss… Each character is more ridiculous than the last in the best possible way – I sort of miss them a bit now. She darts back and forth from behind the counter changing costumes and voices with unbridled glee. Peppered with the kind of punny one-liners that, according to the Sun, killed comedy in 2023, 24 Hour Diner People is absolutely rammed full of unforgettable, elaborate set-pieces. It’s not difficult to see why Lorna’s star is rising so fast.
Two Hearts: Never Stop Throbbing
(Pleasance Courtyard, Pleasance Two, 20:00)
I will start this by saying that, comedy aside, Two Hearts might be one of my favourite bands full stop?? I’ve seen three of their shows now and come away with deeply ingrained ear worms each time (nicer than it sounds), and desperate to stream their music. There’s no actual putting comedy aside though because they are always unfailingly funny. Making the smart decision to enlist a support act this year (two moustachioed country singers), Laura and Joseph return with their pre-recorded backing tracks and mid-song about-turns that make it impossible not to erupt into some weird kind of involuntary bark-laugh. Having recently moved to London, much of the show is spent teasing Laura’s one woman musicale, which she dreams of performing on the West End because then she’d be able to actually afford tickets to a show. The reveal of the song she has written is one of my top Fringe moments. Every song is a banger, and the encore was a welcome treat for the true fans. These two just keep getting better and better.
Ozzy Algar: Speed Queen
(Pleasance Courtyard, Cellar, 22:30)
Welcome to the last laundrette on the Isle of Wight, where proprietor Pet is ready to wash your socks. Hunched and pale, she creeps slowly around the stage, airing the dirty laundry of the other island locals. Ozzy Algar’s beautiful, haunting, sepia-toned hour is a tribute to a crumbling past and a forewarning of a worrying future. It’s mysterious, dark and intriguing. Time ripples between the past and present, with Ozzy deftly navigating the changes in subtle but noticeable ways. She’s unafraid of quiet, unafraid to ‘indulge a little melancholy’, using the darkness to her advantage. Speed Queen is a wonderful argument for the dissolution of genre. It straddles so many things – character comedy and clowning, storytelling, cabaret, theatre – and commits to them all. I’ve been looking forward to this one and am thrilled to have been even more surprised and mesmerised than I expected to be.
Will Rowland: Sunshine by Candlelight
(Banshee Labyrinth, Cinema Room, 18:25)
This is the most and fastest I’ve laughed in a stand-up show this whole Fringe. After welcoming in the audience with a communal crossword, Will Rowland opens on an absolute cracker of a first joke and keeps that level up for the whole hour. It’s characteristically sweet – obviously it is, he has dimples – but there’s a bite under the surface as well. He’s always been a thinker, a self-confessed pretentious young boy, a former philosophy student, and as an adult he’s baffled by his friends’ choices to work mainly in marketing. The show revolves around a wild swimming trip with these friends that sees him dissolving into an existential crisis that’s been simmering away since he read his first and only Bill Bryson book. AND HATED IT. Will is so incredibly at ease with this show. It feels like the complete representation of his person – cheeky, smart and hopeful.
Dylan Adler: Haus of Dy-Lan
(Pleasance Courtyard, Beside, 19:30)
Ok first of all, wow? The talent, the energy, the voice, the vibe. It’s all there. I’m fully enveloped into the Haus of Dy-Lan. Dylan Adler’s first show at the Fringe is an absolute scream, packed to the rafters with brilliant jokes and songs performed with a virtuoso piano accompaniment. Half Japanese, half Jewish (the description of which killed me dead), he looks back over his childhood, family and missed opportunity for the ideal identity-based college essay. What I love about Dylan is that he knows what his talents are, that there are many, and USES THEM ALL. Why hold anything back? If you’ve been a gymnast, do a backflip! That’s just how I feel. The target audience is very me in many ways (queer, Jewish, musical theatre fan), and obviously, I personally was thrilled at the inclusion of his Lin-Manuel Miranda impression I love so much. Star quality, for sure.
Love you,
Zoë x