Edinburgh festival 2024: find the funny with these 20 comedy shows
Olga Koch Comes from Money
Olga Koch stepped into the big league at Fringe 2023 with a show, Prawn Cocktail, pairing sassy tales of a transnational hookup with a thoughtful critique of soul-baring comedy. The 31-year-old now grapples with even thornier autobiographical content in a show about wealth and relatability.
Monkey Barrel, 29 July-25 August
Emma Sidi is Sue Gray
A star of Starstruck and soon-to-be contestant on series 18 of Taskmaster, Emma Sidi cut her teeth way back when as a character comic on the Edinburgh fringe. Now she returns with an intriguing new offering, in disguise as the grand inquisitor of Partygate turned power behind Keir Starmer’s throne.
Pleasance Courtyard, 31 July–25 August
Bobby Davro: Everything is Funny… If You Can Laugh at It
No fringe is complete without some end-of-the-pier old timer arriving in town to test themselves against the kids. Sometimes that’s a revelation; sometimes not so much. This year, variety veteran and ex-EastEnder Bobby Davro bounces back after suffering a stroke onstage just six months ago. Can his material fly on the fringe? Let’s see.
Frankenstein Pub, 2-25 August
Rose Matafeo: On and On and On
With a work-in-progress last year and a stint with improv troupe Snort the year prior, Rose Matafeo has been no stranger to the fringe since winning its comedy award in 2018 then breaking out with her BBC romcom Starstruck. But On and On and On is her first full solo show since prize-winner Horndog and bound to be the hottest of tickets.
Pleasance Courtyard, 9-25 August
Demi Adejuyigbe is Going to Do One (1) Backflip
Another Edinburgh, another clutch of transatlantic imports, bidding to be – as Bo Burnham, Catherine Cohen, Doug Stanhope once were – this year’s little-known US arrival to take the fringe by storm. Might Adejuyigbe (a writer for James Corden’s CBS show, among other credits) fill the role in 2024 with a show promising “original comedic songs, presentations and one single backflip”?
Pleasance Courtyard, 31 July-25 August
Mhairi Black: Politics Isn’t for Me
Goodness knows there’s been little to laugh about in Westminster these last few years. But outgoing SNP MP Mhairi Black – once the youngest MP elected since the 1832 Reform Act – is turning her experience there into comedy with a debut fringe hour promising “brutal honesty” about her 10+ years in the Commons.
Gilded Balloon at the Museum, 31 July-25 August
Kemah Bob: Miss Fortunate
Some comics make their name on the fringe. Plenty do so without going near the place. UK-based Texan Kemah Bob makes her Edinburgh debut this year with Miss Fortunate, about her bipolar disorder, but has already staked out ample space with club night FOC It Up alongside TV stints on House of Games. Her first fringe bow will be keenly anticipated.
Pleasance Courtyard, 31 July-25 August
Dan Tiernan: Stomp
Quite the debut last year from the young Mancunian, whose show Going Under raged (with a twinkle) at Tiernan’s lot in life: gay but straight-seeming; dyspraxic; at odds with his sickeningly nice stepdad. A best newcomer nomination followed – and so expectations raised for his follow-up.
Monkey Barrel 1, 29 July -
25 August
Sheeps: The Giggle Bunch (That’s Our Name for You)
Long is the list of TV successes shared by Ladhood creator Liam Williams, Stath Lets Flats star Al Roberts and the writer Daran Johnson. But before all that, they were – and still are – the fantastic comedy trio Sheeps, fringe favourites now returning with a new suite of sketches: tricksy, silly and all points in between.
Pleasance Courtyard, 31 July-25 August
One-Man Musical by Flo & Joan
Musical? Certainly. One man? That’s not how Flo & Joan are usually described. They’re up to something, the singing Dempsey sisters, who pivot from their usual cabaret to musical theatre with this “original one-man musical about a very renowned gentleman”. (For purists, they also have their own songs-and-jokes show elsewhere in town.)
Pleasance Dome, 31 July-25 August
John Tothill: Thank God This Lasts Forever
What a captivating debut the teacher turned standup John Tothill made at last year’s fringe with an unlike-anything-else faux sermon on hedonism and transcendence through history. Camp, flirty and delighted with everything, the Essex man now returns with … well, something to do with biblical plagues, by the look of things.
Pleasance Courtyard, 31 July-25 August
Jessie Cave: An Ecstatic Display
After the Harry Potter movies, but before the bestselling novel Sunset, renaissance woman Jessie Cave delivered a trio of terrific comedy shows exposing to fringe audiences the entrails of her worrisome, complicated life. Mini-masterpieces of oversharing, self-scrutiny and emotional intelligence, they are now joined by the latest instalment.
Assembly Roxy, 31 July-25 August
Trygve Wakenshaw: Silly Little Things
It’s seven years since Trygve Wakenshaw last visited the fringe, where he was, for a while, the inheritor of Dr Brown’s mantle as hippest silent comic du jour. Lanky, limb-y, forever following his clown logic in surprising directions, the Kiwi announced himself a pretender to Mr Bean’s crown then dropped under the radar. Until now.
Assembly Roxy, 31 July-25 August
These Are the Contents of My Head (The Annie Lennox Show)
It made quite the impression, the London debut of New York cabaret star Salty Brine last year, with his mashup of autobiography, Frankenstein and The Smiths’ The Queen Is Dead. That’s Salty’s trick – to twist classic albums into startling new shapes onstage. Now Annie Lennox gets the treatment in a show “about strong, defiant women and the little gay boy who loves them”.
Assembly Checkpoint, 31 July-25 August
Jordan Brookes: Fontanelle
A Jordan Brookes show is never not intriguing – this restless experimenter is always likely to upend your expectations of a standup show. Five years after his Edinburgh comedy awards triumph, the outlier returns with a new set about the Titanic, how we mine content from disasters and – doubtless – about the (ship)wreckage of his own life too.
Pleasance Dome, 31 July-25 August
Hannah Gadsby: Woof!
In 2017, she publicly quit comedy with a fierce swansong show about humour and trauma – and won the Edinburgh comedy award for it. A Netflix special and global impact followed. Now Hannah Gadsby returns to the fringe for the first time since Nanette with a looser and cheerier set about adjusting to life as a fulfilled standup megastar.
Underbelly Bristo Square, 18-25 August
Natalie Palamides: WEER
She can’t see a boundary without wishing to push it, Natalie Palamides – as fans of her hit stage and then Netflix show, the cross-dressing, #MeToo-teasing Nate, will know. This year, the American is back with “an achingly tender 90s romantic dramedy” starring Palamides as both lovers. Expect fireworks.
Traverse theatre, 5-25 August
Urooj Ashfaq: It’s Funny to Me (WIP)
One half, with Ahir Shah, of last year’s south Asian double whammy at the comedy awards, Urooj Ashfaq walked off with the newcomer gong for her endearing debut Oh No! It showcased a bubbly, deceptively charming act still honing her voice – which may be where this year’s work-in-progress follow-up comes in …
Assembly Roxy, 16-25 August
Related: Edinburgh festival 2024: the best comedy, theatre and dance already reviewed
Takashi Wakasugi: Welcome to Japan
Nominated for the Melbourne comedy festival’s award, Wakasugi majors in cross-cultural comedy casting an eastern eye on western mores. It’s a familiar standup mode which the Japan native elevates with a pleasing kookiness and faux arrogance. Will his Aussie-centric shtick translate to the UK? This fringe debut will reveal all.
Assembly George Square, 31 July-25 August
Adam Riches: Jimmy
Where better than the fringe to throw unlikely performance ideas at the stage? Adam Riches has thrown a few in his time: outrageous character shows (one of which won him the 2011 Edinburgh comedy award), interactive whodunnits – and now an is-it-comedy, is-it-drama? recreation of 1980s tennis ace Jimmy Connors’ epic last hurrah.
Summerhall, 1-26 August
