If you’re heading to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year, and you’re looking for ideas, we’ve already posted about Titania McGrath-creator Andrew Doyle’s Mxnifesto show. Here’s a few more picks from comics and chat show hosts.
Joe Bor: The Story of Walter and Herbert
Joe Bor (also known for character act Jasper Cromwell Jones) recently supported BGT finalist Robert White on tour brings The Story of Walter and Herbert – the story of the friendship between his grandad (world-renowned town planner Walter Bor) and his grandad’s best friend (world-renowned comedy actor Herbert Lom) and their journey from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to the UK.
Harriet Braine: Les Admirables
Funny Women Awards winner and musical comedy maestro, Harriet Braine is back, favouring her own compositions over musical pastiches. Les Admirables is a historical, feminist coming-of-age musical comedy show, where Harriet brings forth a team of rebellious women from the history of science to help her wage battle against her inner demons. She also looks back over her career as a performer, from school plays to now, boldly, and knowingly, presenting her achievements alongside those of renowned inventors, healers and technological pioneers.
Iain Dale
Iain Dale, award-winning LBC radio presenter, CNN political commentator and ‘For the Many’ podcast host is bringing a chat show featuring some big names in politics including Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, Jess Phillips MP, Sadiq Khan and Heidi Allen.
Olaf Falafel: Knitting With Maracas
Olaf Falafel will bring his trademark goofball comedy off the back of a very busy year where he launched his own imprint to publish his latest book, ‘It’s One Giant Leek For Mankind’, released in time for anniversary of the moon landing.
Dominic Frisby: Libertarian Love Songs
Definitely not a middle ground fan is well-known Leaver and financial journalist, Dominic Frisby. His ’17 Million F*** Offs’ went viral and it will be one of the Libertarian Love Songs he will bring to the Fringe. “If you believe in things like free speech, free trade, bitcoin or Brexit, you’ll like this show. If you think the government, BBC, Guardian or EU has the answers, you won’t. Songs, stories and stand-up for people who think the government should stay out of it. No entry to statists, crony capitalists, large corporations or the metropolitan liberal elite.”
Alex Kealy: Rationale
Alex Kealy is back with a new hour of comedy about the emotional roots of our rational thoughts, contending that we’re all prejudiced, sentimental bell-ends who see politics through emotional prisms and personal connections…and then tack on a rationale for those gut decisions after the fact. Rationale reveals that, among other things, stink bombs, German classical music and MRI scanners can shed some terrifying light on human behaviours and hypocrisy.
Leo Kearse: Transgressive
Scottish Comedian of the Year 2017/18 has been banned from many things – hotels, venues, Facebook, sexual positions. But, in 2019, Leo’s show ‘Right Wing Comedian’ was protested at UK dates and banned from Australian Fringe venues following allegations of transphobia – despite being written with a transwoman he was dating. His new show, Transgressive, looks at history’s greatest transgressors, from Gallileo to Gandhi, and rips into modern political correctness, censorship and victim culture.
Konstantin Kisin: Orwell That Ends Well
Konstantin Kisin made international headlines by refusing to sign a ‘safe space’ contract for a university gig. Kisin’s Fringe debut, Orwell That Ends Well, offers an intelligent, uncompromising look at free speech and ‘wokeness’. Full of tales of rags-to-riches-back-to-rags (as the son of a former oligarch) and razor-sharp observations about the world, Kisin’s comedy walks the line between offence and humour as he tears into the sacred myths of modern society. Directed by Jonathan Pie co-writer Andrew Doyle (aka Titania McGrath).
Laura Lexx: Knee Jerk
Laura Lexx will follow up Trying, her very successful show of last year about infertility and mental health, with a more wide-ranging, world problems show. Knee Jerk will look at how hard it is to be a good person these days, ranging over topics like feminism and eco anxiety. ‘Can you change the world without offending anyone?’, Laura asks.
Erich McElroy: Radical Centrist
UK-based American comedian, TV pundit and Trump-baiter (blocked – then unblocked – by Trump on Twitter), Erich McElroy contends that the middle ground is the new daring in Radical Centrist. With politics moving to extremes and into nearly every aspect of our lives, Erich finds another way. ‘The only true centrist comedian at the Fringe’, Erich is rising up to demand incremental change and reasoned debate. He’s crossing over the left/right divide in a way that’ll make you stop and think – or at least slow down.
Steve N Allen: ‘Better Than’
Steve N Allen, known for his dry newscasting duties on The Mash Report, brings Better Than – a look at how hard it is to be better. “When you want to be PC, right on or woke it can be tough. Be better than a Weinstein. Be better than an angry Twitter egg. Be better than you.”
Robin Morgan: What a man…
Another act with a better than/better man theme is Robin Morgan, TV comedy writer, warm-up for The Graham Norton Show and tour support for Ellie Taylor and Iain Stirling. Father to a son, and son to a father, Morgan’s show ‘WHAT A MAN, WHAT A MAN, WHAT A MAN, WHAT A MIGHTY GOOD MAN (SAY IT AGAIN NOW)’ looks at what it takes to make a good male role model.
See more and book tickets on the fringe website.
