Highest marked shows are in red.
Tom Ballard (Preview): It's more personal than usual, set up with coverage of the rise of fascism/Trump. He's animated, articulate & self-aware, as well as being a teensy bit loud. The end section is callback-heavy but this is a densely-written hour of satirical standup. PWYW. 4/5
Chris Cantrill (Preview): Unsurprisingly it shares a lot with 2025's WIP. Tales of rural isolation & arboreal destruction, delivered in an engaging, off-kilter rhythm. The second half has a few lulls but this silly show is incredibly easy to watch/like. PWYW. 3.5/5
Carl Donnelly: It's his 20th Fringe, so he's nearing "institution" status. Expect matey anecdotes, autobiographical snippets & reflections on ageing. It's not redefining the genre, but it's engaging, well-delivered, accessible standup. Catch him before he disappears on Sunday. PWYW. 3/5
Eva Peroni (Preview): It's her debut show. She focuses on autobiographical stories, particularly her time in Costa Rica & her coming out. Delivery is energetic & appealing. The wrap up seems to take a while but that should improve through the run. A promising performer. 3/5
Larry Dean (Preview): He always produces solid, well-practiced shows & this is no different. Focusing on his relationship/marriage but with frequent tangents, he paces the stage, throwing off nervous energy. It's an impressive hour & will only get slicker as August progresses. 4/5
Amanda Dwyer (Preview): Themed around revenge & wrongdoings, there's lots to enjoy here. Delivery is low energy, halting & oddly unstanduppy, increasing the effectiveness of the punchlines. It's solidly-written, though some story details elicit small gasps from the crowd. 3.5/5
Rob Copland: He's a charismatic performer with a mind fizzing with ideas. There's much to indicate that this could develop into another stellar show but a number of factors, not least a sub-optimal audience, made that difficult to realise. I shall be booking in to see him again. PWYW.
Shane Torres: He's a talented standup but we're in 1 Man Show territory here with a fairly grim tale of his parents' deaths. Occasionally he'll leave the darkness for a run of gags & we'll see what we could've won. He's quick to refuse any audience sympathy. I'd have loved 60 mins of jokes. 3.5/5
Madeleine Brettingham: Blimey, this is a startingly-good debut. She discusses what constitutes a geeza & ultimately a legend via tales of her dad. The rapid delivery might lack light & shade but the writing is sublime & the word economy off the charts. Dark, clever & inappropriate. I'm a fan. 4/5
Eric Rushton: A text about a birthday present is the jumping off point for many self-reflective, tiny stories about growing up. It's densely-written & occasionally whimsical but sacrifices memorable lines for callbacks. The ending drags badly. Unfortunately not the show to make his name. PWYW. 2.5/5
Burger & A Pint: On the plus side the sketches don't overstay their welcome & the performers bounce off each other well. However they're not overly blessed with comic acting ability & most sketches have no proper ending. Elements of the audience had a nice time but laugh-free for me I'm afraid. 2/5
Jake Donaldson: A conventional set of autobiographical/anecdotal standup embracing childhood, magic & the band Weezer, loosely themed around finding your place in the world. Bits of 2024's show make a cameo. A passable way to spend 55 mins in the New Town. He's on till the 13th. Free Fringe. 2.5/5
Chris Rutter: The delivery is mannered but not unlikeable & there's good use of language. There's no real theme though he returns to his first love more than once. The material tends to be based on whimsical extrapolations & literal dissections of cultural reference points. A modest success. 3/5
Man Sings the Same Song Over and Over Again for an Hour: Difficult to explain too much without spoiling it. It's like a form of clowning (Natalie Palamides' Laid might be a reference point) but he definitely does what the title says. There's a sense of euphoria as it builds to & reaches its goal. A unique Fringe experience.
Mark Thomas: Age hasn't diminished him. He's still strident & angry. Ageing & being a carer form the bulk of the set but the bourgeoisie/gentrification, politics in general & Farage especially get both barrels. To be this impassioned 40 years into his career is remarkable. A quality standup set. 4/5
Mark Silcox (I Have It All): The premise is that it's a chat show & after a brief intro about silent meditation (obviously) he brings up a series of guests (comics) who he may or may not talk to. You don't get a MASSIVE amount of MS. Probably should have read the blurb more carefully. That's on me.
Ayo Adenekan: The delivery is soft & caressing, almost hypnotic. A relationship story provides some structure from which he diverges to cover his background, friends & London. Punchlines are effective & often surprise. He's done well getting past the "difficult 2nd album". PWYW. 4/5
Comfortable: The writing, particularly the use of language, outshines the performance. Delivery will no doubt improve over an arduous Fringe. She covers her background & health but treads dangerous ground discussing her privilege, just about getting away with it. Free Fringe. 3/5
Dave Chawner: Delivery is rapid & professional while some of the gags feel like dad jokes. He focuses on sobriety & religion. On the former he particularly fails to convince & comes across sounding (ironically enough) like a pub bore. Not for comedy aficionados. Free Fringe. 2/5
Matt Forde: It's gently amusing, pleasant enough stuff. His very mature crowd certainly enjoyed it. Oddly he's stronger away from politics (& the impressions) discussing more personal matters like his recent significant health challenges. Standup snobs (I include myself) can safely miss it. 3/5
James Trickey: He revisits his "origin story", briefly diverges onto friends & then settles in on getting punched last Fringe. He's comfortable on stage but it seems like less of a show than 2025's debut. The callbacks come thick & fast at the end, adding to the feeling that it's underwritten. 3/5
Australia's Least Decorated Soldier: He's ex-army & Australian. Most of the audience are one or both. The bulk of his stories are "crazy" army tales. I can't begin to tell you how entertaining they are for civilians. The crowd really enjoyed it. You probably won't. PWYC. 2/5
Jamie Wolf: The first section is generic, accessible material. The laugh count is high but transitions are brief. There's a hint of Sam Morril in his delivery. The main story, crucially, continues to score highly for gags. An excellent debut. I hope to see more of him. 4/5
Alex Camp: He discusses his addiction issues & addiction in general via the medium of song. The music is well played & the show clips along. Appropriately enough there's no booze in the venue so take that into account. Not a show to rush to but also not a disaster. PWYW. 2.5/5
30, Burty & Thriving: He starts slow, briefly covering commonplace subjects like relationships, airlines & weddings. He's very good on racism & then focuses on gene therapy. No distinct comic voice but timing is strong & there's a whiff of Stewart Lee in the delivery. Worth catching. FF. 3.5/5
Fast Reviews
August McEachern: 30 mins of catty, delusional theatrics. 2/5
Lorraine Hoodless: She seems nice. 1.5/5
Jack Brookmyre: Basic impressions you won't curse yourself for missing. 1.5/5
Gareth Waugh: Excellent start but the laughs thin out when the true crime story starts. 2.5/5
Ifrah Qureshi: She's confident & charismatic. There's a lot of audience involvement, not all of which is handled well. Autobiographical material is crowbarred in around a clunky premise. There's some nice phrasing but it's verbose & certain sections are light on jokes. 2.5/5
Visiting the Fringe & looking for suggestions as to what to see? Here are some of my favourites so far:
Paid: Madeleine Brettingham, Mark Thomas, Larry Dean, Jamie Wolf, Shane Torres, Amanda Dwyer, Ray O'Leary.
Free/PWYW: Tom Ballard, Ayo Adenekan, Chris Cantrill, 30 Burty & Thriving.
Humdinger Words for Lollygaggers and Fuddy-Duddies : He has the air of a children's entertainer. He performs an assortment of poems, often about words. And a rap. And mind reading. And hypnotism. And sort of burlesque. ALL while rhyming. And backed by PowerPoint slides. Not (you wont be surprised to learn) for me.
Ray O'Leary: Delivery is low energy & the jokes are short - not quite one liners but also thankfully not puns. There's a steady stream of laughs but momentum is tricky to build with this style of humour. Not really my bag but he definitely does twisted misdirects well. 3.5/5
Elouise Eftos: It's an essay on modern love. The "character" is entertaining. A brash, narcissistic, condescending, flirty creation, both smart & dumb. The serious bit is 45 mins in, at 50 it's tears. Is the character or the person crying? There's some dancing & we're done. 3.5/5
Andre's Guide to Women: The protagonist is instantly recognisable as a dick, making it an uphill task for us to care about him. While the performance is decent & there's merit in the concept, the character is thinly-drawn & the script is all over the place. Free Fringe. 2.5/5
Robin Boot's Rockomedy: It's a riff-heavy mix of original comic songs, parodies & pastiche, plus, regrettably, some puns. It's a pleasant enough way to pass a lunchtime hour, particularly if you're not pun-phobic, but it's not a destination show. Free Fringe. 2.5/5
Harun Musho’d: He reads excerpts from the autobiographies of PMs Cameron to Sunak, pointing out double standards & inaccuracies. This might be catnip for politics dweebs but for the comedy cool kids this was a struggle. Much of the hour is listening to text read aloud. FF. 1.5/5
Emmeline Downie: It's a single character piece in two acts about a life coach. The comic performance is decent but the character isn’t especially well-drawn & it feels like a 5 minute bit written to an hour. Elements of the crowd were suspiciously into it. I wasn't. 2.5/5
Tarang Hardikar: It's a gentle, innocent (clean) set with frequent flights of fancy and many act-outs (Izzard fan?). He is guilty of going off at random, some might say contrived, tangents simply so he can call back to them at the end. An interesting talent I was not previously aware of. 3.5/5