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.