Sue Perkins : A Piece of Work in Progress (WIP), Pleasance

Perkins said this was her first return to stand up in 16 years. So she'd had plenty of life to build a show around.

She began by identifying various personas she's know for - Bake Off, Just a Minute, Taskmaster etc. Some good Bake Off puns and plenty of them.

But who is she really? Yet another (her phrase) comedian with a diagnosis of ADHD. To which she could add on tales a brain tumour (benign), the side effects of medications, and a mental breakdown. Lots of material, often very funny, even on the most tragic and stressful of situations.

The show is well structured, with some nice call backs.  But curiously flat.  Not unfunny, not unenjoyable, but unsatisfying.  Were my expectations too high? Or have I seen too many stand ups using their audience like a therapy session? But I'm still glad I went to see her.

Big Bite-Size Breakfast Menu Two, Pleasance Beyond, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

 The worst thing about seeing all 3 menus of Bite Size is knowing that you’ve seen them all.  Always entertaining, year after year, and 2024 was as good as ever. There were 6 playlets on this Menu.

Criminal Behaviour - A robbery that seems routine for the victims.  They're happy to talk to the robber, make suggestions even, but he's the one who gets something very different to what he was hoping for.  Funny and twisted.

Halloween - Not much by way of laughs in this one, but a very moving vignette of grief, and life in a small town.

Jitters - A new national service to cut down on the divorce rate, unlike any that have gone before.  Compulsory for brides, and maybe not such a bad idea…?  Funny and optimistic.

The Rota - When one of your group of friends finds herself out on a limb, she has expectations that the others will help her out - and she has the spreadsheet ready for them.  Just how committed will they be?  How far does friendship extend?

Chute! - He’s about to take his first ever parachute jump, but the instructor isn't doing much to settle his nerves.  Funny but dark.

In The Attic - Take every cliched trope about literary attics, and watch them being crammed into ten minutes of hilarity.  The mad wife, the ghost, the spurned lover - they are all here in a fast moving finale featuring all 5 cast members.  Gloriously silly.

Lots of variety on offer here, and as entertaining as the other 2 menus.

Big Bite-Size Breakfast Menu Three, Pleasance Beyond, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

 I reviewed Menu 1 a few days ago and this was, of course, more of the same, with another 5 mini dramas squeezed into an hour. If the vague theme last time was First Dates, then this time there was more of a US connection.

Celebrities in Space - A NASA team desperate for funding and looking for ideas to get public attention and bring the money in.  Firing well known celebrities into space might be the answer?  It takes them a while to clarify the idea, but it could end up making the Earth a better place…

Jilted - A bride running from the altar.  But what made her change her mind?  And what made her go along with the idea of marriage in the first place?  Lots of good reasons not to go ahead, but is there some the other way?  A moving reminder of the world as it used to be.

Once Flown - Katie is returning from Uni today and her parents are thrilled.  Or maybe less than thrilled.  And when the reality turns out to be surprisingly confusing they don’t really know what to think.  The explanation may be darker than they has anticipated.

Baggage - An American visitor to an East European country, trying to find their missing luggage in the airport.  But finding frustration instead.  Very funny, and a reminder that there are always real human beings behind the complaints desk.

Misfortune - Another US-set story, this time in a cosy restaurant.  A lovely romantic meal, but then the fortune cookies tell another story.  Another dark twist in store, and Liv Koplick is hilarious as the bored waitress.  

Not a single weak offering on this menu, with all 5 providing plenty of laughs, some occasional food for thought and a couple of unexpected twists.

Harun Musho'd Reads Bad Political memoirs (So You Don't Have To), Strathmore Bar, PBH Free Fringe, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

 Very much still a Work in progress, this Free Fringe show takes a look a four recent volumes of memoirs from distinctly non-literary figures. Books by (?) Prince Harry, Nadine Dorries, Liz Truss and Matt Hancock are not something most sensible people would consider worth a look. So Musho'd has done it for us, and provides the highlights. Well, lowlights.

Harun has some professional insight into most of these works, having worked in the Houses of Parliament until a couple of years ago, so this isn't just someone having a dig. He has some insider knowledge of a lot of the events being written about. But he's also there to be funny, and extremely personable, and with such dire source material he has plenty to work from.

He reads out selected quotes which suggest all four 'authors' write dreadful prose (Hancock the only real exception), misunderstand the world around them, indulge in exculpatory self deception, and don't shirk from lies where they can advance their own aggrandisement. They also suggest a great lack of editing!

It's entertaining stuff, and at the end he explains how he intends to develop the show, making it more about the 14 year disaster of tory rule (so Harry will go, Cameron comes in).

Worth seeing it for itself, but also to see this current incarnation to be able to compare it with the finished article this time next year.

Roger McGough : Alive and Gigging, Stand 3, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

 Alive and Gigging says the title of the show. And at 86 years old that is indeed something to boast about. McGough became something of a cult figure in the 60s, but is very much still relevant today. While some of the show looked backwards, and included poems from his early days of fame, there was plenty of contemporary material.

Not just poems, but stories. Stories from his life, both real and fictional (he probably wasn't the man who changed Jimi Hendrix's career!), all delivered with humour and sharp observation. And plenty there about the general imbecility of humans, and the love of hatred that so many exhibit - Ukraine, Gaza and the recent far right #FarageRiots all get into Roger's verse.

It felt like a very quick hour. Nostalgia, political comment and a lot of laughs. Excellent.

Mark Thomas : Gaffa Tapes, The Stand, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

 Non stop rant, non stop laughs. Angry but funny. Thomas hasn't changed, which can only be a good thing. After a brief foray into having a go at Starmer he launches into his most fruitful subject matter - the disasters of the past 14 years, and the decay of democracy in the UK. Plus being bang up to date on the origins of the #FarageRiots that have been so horrific recently. Of course Thomas has a long history of activism against the far right, so this is meat and drink to him.

There are lessons on how to fight the nonsense of christian anti-choice campaigners by using their own book against them, and special mentions for the likes of Leadsom, Truss, hancock, Bravermad, Johnson et al. A cast of horrors! Behind the strong language are plenty of astute observations and his own slant on events. Anger and laughter make for a great combination.

On a happier note he admits to the surprise of falling in love again at 61 years old, and gets in a few 'proper' jokes too. BUt at heart Thomas is still the class warrior we love, and a class act.

The Adventures of the White Unicorn

 Heli Parna is Estonian.  Not many people know much about Estonia.  And you won’t get to learn a lot more about it from her show.  That’s OK, because she does cover subject  that are more within most people’s everyday experience.  Feminism, relationships, breakups, dating apps.  And what the White Unicorn means, so that’s OK.

There was Heli, and then there were five of us in the audience.  Not much for a comedian to feed off, so I initially worried that this could feel like a long show, with forced laughter required.  Yet it was a surprise when the fifty minutes was up, and it felt like she’d got to know us almost as well as we got to know her.  It’s maybe not the funniest show you’ll see, but it has some good laughs, and it is warm and friendly, fun and absorbing.  Plus where else are you going to see an Estonian stand-up?  Well worth a look.

Adam Hills : Shoes Half Full, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

 A few minutes of audience interaction to get underway, with unpredictable consequences. A starting gambit favoured by many stand-ups, and Hills is as good as any, looking relaxed and never making anyone uncomfortable. On this occasion it produced a memorable moment, which proved worthy of a call-back at the end.

Then into the show. Adam is famous for championing the rights of people with disabilities, so he began with some of his own experiences. Notably playing disability rugby league, and realising that he had to overcome his own sense of fair play to use his opponents' disabilities against them. As they did against him. Which makes his point for him. Treat people as people, not as something alien. That theme continued into other subject, like muslims and trans people, and how, like all of us, they just want to live their own lives without the shit our society is dealing out to them. Sober subjects, but never awkward in Hillspeak, with so many great lines to soften the seriousness of the content.

He ends up talking about his own kids, and how his parenting skills struggle when they can be as funny as him, but also inappropriate. And this too fits into the overall theme of the show, which is about being tolerant, thinking about others, and learning that sometimes it's best to say nothing.

Very funny, warm, often wise. Hills makes you feel a bit better about the world, more hopeful at a time when hatred and violence seem to be overwhelming us. And how simple that really is to do.

He even sum sit up in just four words - Don't be a dick. And let some mariachi into your life. One of the most important shows on the Fringe.

Big Bite-Size Breakfast Menu One, Pleasance Beyond, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

This year's first helping of tea/coffee, strawberries, croissants, and mini dramas. Five actors performing five playlets in an hour.

Gnome Anne's Land sounds like a title that was then turned into a script. But it's pleasantly enjoyable anyway. A group of garden gnomes fear for their future, and realise the truth they've been hiding from. Featuring a union rep, groanworthy puns and surprise buttocks. Pure comedy.

True to You brings us a surprising first date off Tinder. It looks like being a failure, but maybe all is not what it seems? The capes reveal all. At it's best when breaking the fourth wall. A clever take on an established trope.

An Actor Prepares takes place in a theatre dressing room, a few minutes before curtain up. Simmering resentments between the old established star and the up and coming new boy boil over into a surprise twist. A nice nod to the old theatre.

Your Move was my favourite of the quintet. Another first date tale, this time set over a chess board. But the game is being played to some very unconventional rules. A smart metaphor for how relationships can play out.

Our Next Contestant features a TV dating show in which the host gets more than he bargained for. Revenge and a penguin make for an interesting mix. Unusual in having all five members of the cast make an appearance, and charmingly cynical.

There's no real theme to these 'menus', so it was a surprise to find first dates featuring so heavily! But none the worse for that. Wonderful early entertainment to start your day off with.

Jo Caulfield : Pearls Before Swine, Stand 3, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

No theme, no storyline, no happy ending.  Just funny  Jo tells stories drwan from life and where her imagination takes the things around her.  Men in the pub, ads aimed a women of a certain age and German porn films all get the Caulfield treatment.  And her most reliable source of material, the neverending disappointment that is her comedy husband.  Acerbic, sharp, smart, with unexpected punchlines.  Or even exected one.  The result is still laughter, because her delivery is spot on.  

Having seen her a few times before, there was some familiar material, which was a little disappointing.  But that didn’t stop me laughing, all over again.  If you are looking for a show that changes your life or tugs your emotions then this isn’t it.  But if you simply want to laugh, and laugh, for an hour then Jo Caulfield always delivers.

Keiran Hogson : Work In Progress, Pleasance Courtyard (Forth), Edinburgh Festival Fringe

 Yes, it's another WIP show, but Hodgson doesn't use his notes as much as expected, and is always funny. He says he's trying out a new style of comedy, away from his usual storytelling or character styles. But what we get still pays strong allegiance to both. It's about his relationship with the USA, from early childhood until the Obama years, and how the culture and politics affected him. So it's definitely a story, and he uses his impressionist abilities to fill out the characters discussed. - maybe not so different then!

It's a coming of age story. America, for him, was the epitome of cool when he was a kid, and he could never understand his parents favouring Europe. Then came Dubya... The politics changed, along with the music and movies he'd once loved. And 9/11 told him that the promise of world peace wasn't as real as he'd thought.

So it's a move from naivete to understanding, from confidence to uncertainty, and it ends... hanging, because he knows he has more to write. Hodgson is easy to like, and has an accessible style that contains plenty of unusual slants on past events. For this oldie there a few too many references to aspects of culture that only someone under forty is going to get, so maybe being younger would give you more than I got. As with any WIP it's a bit hit and miss at times. That will change as August progresses, he adapts the material to his audiences and learns the lines better.

Hodgson is certainly worth seeing, and provides an entertaining hour, but it's a shame he's not doing a longer run with this show. It might have been really good by the end of the month!

A Montage of Monet, Greenside@George Street, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

 A one man show starring Stephen Smith as the artist. It begins with him as an old man, raging against the failings of his body, and turns into reminiscence of a long life. Beginnings, failings, relationships, poverty, fame, riches, they're all there. And maybe that's the problem. Shoehorning so rich a life into 55 minutes is a near impossible challenge if you want to get so much detail in.

Consequently much of the opening feels more like lecture or polemic than drama, and that issue reoccurs throughout. The use of a screen to provide illustrations of people and paintings adds to that sense of education over entertainment. Not that it's boring though. Smith does a decent job with the clunky script, gets a few laughs, and does show his acting chops when the occasion allows. Perhaps he needs to remember he's not in a full size theatre, but a small room. His angry Monet was a bit too loud for the space!

And this is no hagiography. the man portrayed is arrogant, selfish and treats people badly, especially women. However there isn't really much about the painter. Yes, he loves painting from nature, and we hear about his influences, his own self of his place in the art world, but little of how he developed his techniques which made his work so loved.

If you want to learn a bit about Monet from a (mostly accurate) historical perspective it's interesting, but it offers little as a drama. Hard to recommend.

Luke Wright - Joy!, Pleasance Dome (10 Dome), Edinburgh Festival Fringe

 A poet for our opening show, and one with whom we're already familiar, have seen several times before. And he's so much more than a poet. Comedian, raconteur, showman. Even, as he demonstrates in this show, a bit of a dancer.

Wright explains that he had to choose the title, Joy!, almost a year ago, when he was feeling particularly joyful with his life, both personal and professional. But writing joyful material proved a lot harder in the chilly greyness of a January afternoon when he made a start. So this is not a parade of joys, but a look at the ups and downs of life. Because without misery how can there also be joy? Life is all about context.

So there's sadness, anger, affection, guilt, love, mundanity and, yes, joy, in Luke's writing. He shows off his technical mastery of complex verse forms, makes us laugh, makes us think, makes us feel. There's a lot cleverness, both linguistic and emotionally, and much to ponder on. How our words can affect others, how the ephemera of social media is a joy killer, how much family and friends are important to a joyful life. Even a bit of song and dance and an audience singalong!

It's a fast paced hour that never drags in the slightest, and makes you feel involved with a witty and very humane man. Highly recommended.