Edinburgh Festival

The world is going to end in 80 years and two couples are deciding whether it’s still a good idea to have children. And then one of the women falls for the other couple’s surrogate. Certain Death and Other Considerations has a stand-out premise, exploring the very real issue of eco-anxiety through a fun, apocalypse romantic drama. The execution of this premise, however, falls a little short.

The Edinburgh Revue mark a grand return to the Edinburgh Fringe.

Sooz Kempner provides a solid hour of stand up.

Dizney in Drag: Once Upon a Parody is a self-confessed ‘ridiculous show’. And if that’s what you are after, you will absolutely love it because this cabaret serves up the sort of toilet humour that sits somewhere between an amused eye-roll and an ‘oh-no-they-didn’t’ guffaw. 

The WTF moments come thick and fast in Colin Cloud’s EdFringe show After Dark, which ran until 21 August at glorious McEwan Hall. 

The Oxford Revue, one of the most prestigious and well known student comedy groups in the UK, arguably rivaled only by The Cambridge Footlights when it comes to the alumni that has came from their hallowed halls, with the likes of Rowan Atkinson, Stewart Lee, Maggie Smith, Armando Iannucci and members of Monty Python being past members of the troupe. With such big boots to fill, one would expect an hour of tightly packed sketch comedy and laughs a-plenty. Unfortunately, audiences don't recieve much of either.

It is rare that a show makes me laugh so hard I struggle to breathe. It is even rarer that a show brings me to tears with laughter. It is unheard of for these types of laughs to be a constant for a show. But, somehow, Karp manages to achieve one of the funniest shows at the Fringe with just a PowerPoint presentation and a Cats costume of his own.

What do you do when you achieve your dream and then, less than a year after, lose everything you’d worked for? That’s what Josh Weller takes a look at in his Fringe show, Josh Weller: Age Against the Machine.

I went into NewsRevue with high expectations, having read reviews of previous runs and being a fan of satirical musical shows. Looking back, I should not have gone in with these expectations, as they left me even more disappointed than if I had gone in blind.

From the moment she steps onto the stage, Klein is here to show the audience that she is a star. She emerges wearing a bright pink dress and struts on the stage, holding herself confidently as she greets the audience. Her opening song, in which she sings about the star being “Totally me,” is an absolute bop and immediately had me hooked.

Walking into C Cubed, you are greeted by Babs Romance MP, who thanks you for coming as you take a seat. You are at her press conference in order to witness her reflect on her political career as she announces her new party - The Preservatives. A projection on the screen shows the logo of the party, a green tree on fire.

As someone whose favourite musical is Les Misérables, as soon as I saw the poster for Les Millénniables, the classic drawing of Cosette inside of an avocado, I knew that I had to check this show out. Les Millénniables takes the characters of the musical and puts them into the 21st century in situations reflecting what they faced in the 19th century

Dusk: A Bite-Size Love Story is a loving parody of the Twilight series, taking the iconic vampire story and changing names, throwing in some more jokes, and adding a few songs. The musical is made for fans of the show with hundreds of references to the work it parodies.

If you’ve been on TikTok, you’ve probably seen at least one of Laura Ramoso’s characters.You have her strict German mother, her dramatic Italian Dad, or girls coming back from trips to Europe. Laura Ramoso: Frances gives Ramoso the opportunity to jump from the screen to the stage, going from minute-long sketches to an hour of comedy.

From the minute she walks on stage, Alexandra Haddow makes herself approachable. She chats with the audience like that cool friend we all have who is always telling crazy stories about their life and a feeling of trust is built between her and the audience.

Did you know that Boris III, King of Bulgaria, wasn’t even Bulgarian? It’s true, along with many other strange things that happened during his lifetime that are explored in The Brief Life and Mysterious Death of Boris III, King of Bulgaria.

Like tattoos, this show might fit the same format as others out there, but each one is entirely unique. This isn’t someone who has perfected a routine to perform on repeat, his witty remarks and off-the-cuff jokes are entirely in response to audience participation and this just shows off his natural ability to make anything funny.

2020 The Musical manages to make the audience bizarrely nostalgic for a time everyone would rather forget, in a way that feels like healing. The humour was uproariously funny and the technical elements of the production were almost flawless.

BWW catches up with Max Norman to chat about bringing A Pirate's Life For Me to the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Sid Singh, Table For One is a hysterical and uplifting Human Rights informed-comedy, exploring the good which can be done, when embracing a multitude of collective personal skills. Singh is  extremely eloquent, ethical and refined in International Politics, exploring the American Administration with astute conclusions.

Shows like Best in Class cannot be celebrated enough. Growing up working class just forty minutes away from Scotland’s capital is enough to feel worlds apart; change needs to happen to address the social imbalance at arts festivals like the Fringe and open it up to fresh audiences and performers worldwide. Best in Class is wonderfully funny and a true celebration of working-class comedy in the UK and seeks to do just that.

I’m Having Distressing Thoughts is a spectacularly funny look into the absurdity of the environments those in crisis are expected to navigate to recover, and a message of hope for when the Instagram quotes become downright nauseating.

There are so many predictably phrased ways I could tell you how much I enjoyed Friend (the One with Gunther). Oh. My. God. Could it *be* any more satisfying? Out of five stars, it should be seven… seven… SEVEN... It’s just kick-you-in-the-crotch, spit-on-your-neck fantastic.

This operatic frolic through well-chosen tunes was introduced immediately as ‘silly’ by performer Tamara Stein, and silly it was: the baroness’s characterisation was overblown and full of charisma, and her tale was a melee of exaggerated emotional outbursts.

As someone who has only recently got into the world of standup, particularly with British comedians, I’ve only seen a few of the UK’s iconic comedy shows. This includes Mock the Week, so as soon as I saw that Rhys James was doing a show at the Fringe, I knew that I had to see it.