In a classic case of forgetting that the rest of the world does not always operate following the exact same rhythms of my own brain, it has reached my attention that the Edinburgh Fringe has somehow begun, despite the fact that I don’t get there until the end of next week. The nerve! Anyway, many years ago I used to compile an exhaustive list of Fringe recommendations each year and publish it on my website, but due to my fears of offending people it was essentially a list of everyone I had ever met who was going to be at the Fringe, and was therefore several hundred entries long and almost entirely useless to anybody actually looking for recommendations.

This year, due to the passing of both time and of the proverbial torch to a younger generation (not to mention the increasingly exorbitant costs), fewer close friends are actually doing the Fringe, so perhaps compiling my recommendations will for once become feasible and actually useful for people. That said, the initial longlist for this had 211 things on it, so I’ve had to be ruthless and impose some rules – no work-in-progresses, no mixed bill shows, that kind of thing. Obviously, there are loads of shows I can confidently recommend, and lots I’ve been sad to leave out for expediency, but here are the ones I’m really truly excited about and which should be on your radar. Book tickets if you’re planning a trip up there and want to work out what you should see!

1. ADAM RICHES: JIMMY – Summerhall, 21:30. Adam’s made ridiculous narrative comedy shows before, like the amazing basketball epic Coach Coach, but I think this is the first time he’s actively categorised a show as theatre. I’m sure this, his dramatisation of tennis legend’s Jimmy Connors’ comeback, will be just as hilarious and silly as ever, but I’m also excited to see what he’s come up with working in more dramatic territory.
2. ALEXANDER BENNETT: EMOTIONAL DAREDEVIL – Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose, 18:20. Alexander has proven himself a really talented confessional stand-up in recent years, but is doing something a bit different this year – an interactive show about trust and risk that requires an audience member to be emotionally intimate with him in exchange for his being emotionally intimate with the audience. It sounds a really interesting experiment, and I’m keen to see what it’s transformed into since I first spoke to him about it.
3. AMY GLEDHILL: MAKE ME LOOK FIT ON THE POSTER – Monkey Barrel, 13th-25th, 18:10. Quite simply the best poster at this year’s Fringe, and this will no doubt be an equally brilliant show. Everybody knows Amy is one of the brightest, best and silliest voices to emerge from the stand-up scene in recent years, and she’s always an absolute joy.
4. BEN TARGET: LORENZO – Pleasance Dome, 16th-25th, 13:20. A victory lap for Ben’s theatre show about giving up comedy to become a carer for his uncle, which was a huge hit at last year’s Fringe and has since travelled to Vancouver and New York. It’s a beautiful show, and one of a handful on this list I was very proud to do a little bit of work on. Go see it if you missed it last year!
5. CELYA AB: OF ALL PEOPLE – Pleasance Courtyard, 17:20. I’ve annoyingly never seen one of Celya’s full shows, which I’m disappointed at myself for because whenever I’ve seen her live she has been a peerlessly brilliant, clever and funny stand-up, and whenever I’ve chatted to her she has been a peerlessly wonderful person. I keep hearing that this show is her best yet, so I won’t be missing it this time.
6. CHRIS CANTRILL: EASILY SWAYED – Monkey Barrel at The Tron, 12:10. Along with Amy Gledhill, Chris is the other half of the Delightful Sausage, who have made some of the most gloriously stupid shows of the last few years. He’s such a naturally funny idiot and, while it’s a shame there isn’t a new Sausages show this year, it’s exciting that they’ll both be up there doing their solo shows.
7. DEREK MITCHELL: DOUBLE DUTCH – Pleasance Courtyard, 22:50. I’ve also not seen Derek do a full show before, but I’ve seen him at gigs and really enjoyed his online sketches. The real reason he’s on this list is because in Berlin last week when myself, Derek, John-Luke Roberts and Josh Glanc went for dinner, Derek was such a good conversationalist that he has immediately become one of my favourite comedians. He’d say things like “So tell me about your recent trip to Amsterdam.” I was blown away. Comedians just don’t talk like that this close to the Fringe normally.
8. EDDY HARE: THIS ONE’S ON ME – Pleasance Courtyard, 17:30. Eddy is one half of Crizards, the world’s lowest-energy sketch double act. Crizards are brilliant and Eddy was such an ocean of calm, unhurried positivity during the mania of EdFringe 2022, so he will always have a large place in my heart. I’m excited to see what he’s made for his solo debut!
9. EDY HURST’S WONDERFULL DISCOVERIE OF WITCHES IN THE COUNTIE OF HIMSELF – Assembly George Square, 18th-26th, 16:20. I’ve been working on this show since last year as director, and I think it’s really fun and special. Edy has discovered he is an ancestor of one of the witches from the Pendle Witch Trials, and has decided to go all-in on fulfilling his family’s legacy. If only he could stop thinking about the Vengaboys.
10. ELF LYONS: HORSES – Pleasance Courtyard, 21:20. Elf can always be relied upon to make something bold and weird and unlike anything else on the Fringe. I believe this new show is a comedy show performed by a horse, or something. I’m sold.
11. EMMA SIDI IS SUE GRAY – Pleasance Courtyard, 16:15. God this is good. Emma’s characterisation of the nation’s only celebrity civil servant, and her relationship with new boss Keir Starmer, is so funny. I now associate the words “burger and lobster” entirely with Sue Gray. I can’t wait to watch a whole hour of it.
12. EVERY BRILLIANT THING – Summerhall, 11:45 & 23:00. This beautiful and life-affirming show, performed and co-written by Jonny & The Baptists’ Jonny Donahoe, was one of the huge breakout theatre hits of the Fringe ten years ago, and is back for a revival. If you’ve never seen it, do yourself a favour.
13. FURIOZO: MAN LOOKING FOR TROUBLE – Underbelly Cowgate, 21:40. I know very little about this clown show, but I keep hearing about it. It’s been described to me as very intense and high-octane and terrifying, and absolutely stupid and ridiculous and silly. It feels like it’s grown a real cult following already, and I’m excited to find out more about it.
14. GARRY STARR: CLASSIC PENGUINS – Pleasance Courtyard, 20:30. The last time I saw a Garry Starr show, he was emerging naked and arse-first from the womb of the Earth as he prepared to perform a potted history of every Greek myth. This time, it’s the same but for every Penguin Classics book. I assume he’ll be naked again, he usually is.
15. HARRIET KEMSLEY: EVERYTHING ALWAYS WORKS OUT FOR ME – Monkey Barrel, 1st-12th, 18:10. I went for a walk with Harriet recently and she talked me through some of the events which have contributed to the annus horribilis that informs her new show, and bloody hell it’s a lot. I mean, don’t get me wrong, there’s some really funny stuff in there, but it’s a hell of a year. I’m looking forward to seeing her weave hilarity out of the chaos.
16. INSTRUCTIONS – Summerhall, 13:10. In 2022, the best thing I saw was an interactive piece of conceptual theatre called work.txt. Instructions is the latest show from the same company, and if it’s half as inventive and profound as their last show, then it’s going to be incredible.
17. JAZZ EMU: KNIGHT FEVER – Pleasance Courtyard, 21:00. I saw this in Machynlleth in May and it’s bursting with inventive ideas, ridiculous skits, unbelievably catchy tunes. Archie Henderson is the most multi-talented person in comedy at the moment, I think, and he has used all of them for this brilliant show.
18. JIN HAO LI: SWIMMING IN A SUBMARINE – Pleasance Courtyard, 19:10. I’ve loved Jin Hao Li on the handful of occasions I’ve seen him at gigs, and I just keep hearing more and more about how wonderful this new show is. There’s a gentle otherworldliness to his stand-up that feels very special, and this will be one of the big breakout debuts of this year’s festival.
19. JO GRIFFIN: LAST CHANCE SALOON – Assembly George Square, 21:15. I went with a friend to see Jo’s show in preview earlier this year and my friend thought that she’d seen a new comedy messiah. I got to act all smug, because I’ve known that Jo is brilliant for ages – she’s such a feelgood presence onstage, I could watch her for hours. But stuff your bright young Gen Z newcomers, Jo dissecting how it feels to still be having fun in your mid-to-late 30s when society has decided you are no longer interesting is what me and my friends want to see. (NB I also think the Gen Z newcomers are very good. Case in point:)
20. JOE KENT-WALTERS IS FRANKIE MONROE: LIVE!! – Monkey Barrel, 23:25. This will be another one of those big breakout debuts. Joe has such funny bones. The character of Frankie Monroe is nightmarish and creepy and weird, but those bones are so funny you just get swept away by it. I could watch him prance around the stage with a trowel all day.
21. JOHN-LUKE ROBERTS: JOHN-LUKE-A-PALOOZA! – Monkey Barrel, 14:10. The most audacious project of this year’s Fringe, in which John-Luke revisits all ten of his previous shows and performs them one after the other, like Sparks did that one time (although admittedly they were doing it with Sparks albums, not John-Luke Roberts’ shows).
22. JOSH GLANC: FAMILY MAN – Monkey Barrel, 15:20. Josh is another one of those acts who’s just effortlessly brilliant at being stupid. He’s got a song about a breathalyser test which makes me howl whenever I see it, and I’m sure this show will be full of equally daft skits and songs and bits. It’ll be a riot.
23. JOZ NORRIS: YOU WAIT. TIME PASSES. (WORK-IN-PROGRESS) – Monkey Barrel at The Hive, 12th-14th, Various Times. Woops, how did this get in here, I said no work-in-progresses? Hmm, weird. Oh well, it looks really good and you should definitely go and see it.

This one looks really great, actually.

24. KATIE NORRIS: FARM FATALE – Pleasance Courtyard, 20:30. How could I not include my dear sister in this list? Ever since we were children growing up together, she’d talk about how much she was looking forward to doing her debut show, and I’m so proud to see her making her dreams come true! Support the Norrises and go see her. (NB We are not related, this is just a bit we do, but she is very good)
25. LIL WENKER: BANGTAIL – Pleasance Courtyard, 16:15. Lil is a rising star on the clowning circuit, and I’ve heard great things about this show in which she plays a cowboy, which was award-nominated in Leicester this year. I’m looking forward to seeing her do a full show, as I’ve only seen short sets so far, all of which have been great.
26. LORNA ROSE TREEN: SKIN PIGEON – Pleasance Dome, 1st-12th, 21:50. Another hit from 2023 coming back for a victory lap, Lorna has proven herself as one of the most exciting character comedians around in recent years, and this show was an absolute hoot. Give it a watch if you missed it!
27. LUKE ROLLASON, LUKE ROLLASON, LET DOWN YOUR HAIR – Pleasance Dome, 19:10. Now that he is an official Disney prince with the backing of the world’s largest entertainment conglomerate, Luke has decided to lean into fairytales for an hour of clowning and nonsense exploring Rapunzel, King Midas and many more. He’s a brilliant silly billy, don’t miss him.
28. MAT EWINS: EWINS SOME, YOU LOSE SOME – Monkey Barrel, 21:15. Hands down, my favourite act of every single Fringe. I’ve been watching Ewins’ shows every year I’ve been there since 2016 now, and he is simply one of the greatest of all time. He spawns many imitators, but nobody does it like him. His shows are utterly ridiculous and I love them so much.
29. THE MAYOR AND HIS DAUGHTER: A GENUINE APPRECIATION OF COMEDY – PBH at Banshee Labyrinth, 12th-13th, 15:15. This is a sketch act who I’ve only ever seen do short sets at various gigs, and they always transport me to another world. They’re so funny, and kind of otherworldly and strange. The closest thing I could maybe compare it to is some of the strange, cerebral weirdness of Sean Morley’s shows, but they’re very much their own thing. If you’ve never seen them, do yourself a favour and check them out.
30. MICHAEL BRUNSTROM: COPERNICUS NOW – Hootenannies at Potterrow, 2nd-11th, 15:00. Michael is one of the great masters of high-concept absurdism, making shows about subjects from the Great Fire of London to the herb parsley. This new one is about Copernicus, and aims to create a new kind of comedy that challenges Copernicus’s model of the cosmos. It’s a bold ambition, but if anyone can do it it’s Michael.
31. PATTI HARRISON: MY HUGE TITS HUGE BECAUSE THEY ARE INFECTED NOT FAKE – Pleasance Courtyard, 1st-11th, 19:30. One of the breakout stars of I Think You Should Leave is back with this show, which I saw a WIP of back in 2022. It was unfinished then but already so funny, and I imagine it’s now simply a masterpiece.
32. PHIL ELLIS: COME ON AND TAKE THE REST OF ME – Monkey Barrel 4, 12:45. Phil’s last show saw him prancing around the room singing “Jellicle Cats” with a full live band while dressed as a cat. This new one takes things back to basics as a pure stand-up show, which in other hands might be a shame, but not with Phil because he’s one of the best stand-ups in the country.
33. QUEER TALES FOR AUTISTIC FOLK WIP – Hootenannies at Potterrow, 5th-12th, 16:55. Woops, another work-in-progress! But it’s ok, because this is the other show I’ve been working on as director this year. It’s an interactive choose-your-own-adventure show from Cerys Bradley exploring stories and neurodiversity, and I think it’s evolving into something very exciting. Come along and help Cerys build it towards its finished form for 2025!
34. ROB AUTON: THE EYES OPEN AND SHUT SHOW – Assembly Roxy, 14:15. Rob is one of those artists who can make work that is genuinely uncategorisable. He can talk about almost anything and he’ll make you laugh til you cry, but it’s hard to really think of it as comedy, because it also feels kind of like poetry or theatre or just plain magic. He’s one of the greats.
35. ROB COPLAND: GIMME (ONE WITH EVERYTHING) – PBH at Banshee Labyrinth, 18:05. I’ve always loved Rob, he’s long been one of the scene’s great oddball live-wires, but I saw him recently at a gig and it felt like things had clicked into place since I’d last seen him that made him now utterly mesmerising. I’m excited to see what he’s cooked up, as there was a real energy and excitement to what I glimpsed and I want to see more of it.
36. ROSALIE MINNITT: CLEMENTINE – Underbelly Cowgate, 1st-11th, 18:40. Another victory lap for a hit show of 2023, and another I did a bit of work on as an outside eye. Rosalie’s Clementine is a gloriously over-the-top character creation, and this show is a whirlwind of madness and invention. I’m hoping to catch it one more time before she puts it away, and you should do the same.
37. SEYMOUR F*CKING MACE YOU C*NTS! – The Stand 2, 12:10. Seymour Mace is a legend, and that’s all there is to it. One of the few genuine free spirits and true artists at the Fringe, who goes up there to do exactly what he wants on his terms, year in year out. Such an inventive brain.
38. SH!T THEATRE: OR WHAT’S LEFT OF US – Summerhall, 16:45. To my shame, I have never seen a Sh!t Theatre show, despite people constantly recommending them to me as exactly my kind of thing. I’ve long been drawn to the work that sits in the liminal space between comedy and theatre, and by all accounts these two are the masters of that space, so I plan to rectify my blind spot this year and get along to this.
39. SOOZ KEMPNER: CLASS OF 2000 – Underbelly Bristo Square, 16:40. Nobody does nostalgia quite like Sooz, though her show this year is not just about the Windows Vista background and 90s pencil cases, it’s also about class and dressage (the good bits of dressage, not the bits where Olympic athletes get banned for animal cruelty).
40. STEEN RASKOPOULOS: FRIENDLY STRANGER – Pleasance Courtyard, 16:50. I saw a preview of this at ARGComFest earlier this month and it’s hilarious. There’s a loose thread following a fictional Scandinoir crime drama which is a huge amount of fun, but this and other recurring sketches ultimately come together into an ingenious climax about the power of kindness which is really masterfully done.
41. STEVIE MARTIN: CLOUT – Monkey Barrel 4, 15:35. Not content with producing the funniest, silliest and sharpest sketches in the online comedy world, Stevie returns to the live scene to remind us that she is also one of our best stand-ups. In clout she dissects quite how the world of online content has made us all go insane, via a video about a pipe and a song about a big tiddy, among other things.
42. TAROT: SHUFFLE – Pleasance Courtyard, 21:30. I also saw Tarot’s new show at ARG a few weeks back, and it’s so good. Tarot are the masters of sketches that are weird and stupid and captivating for a few minutes, before abruptly pivoting into something absurdly simple that completely recontextualises what we’ve been watching. My favourite example of that this year is the one about apple bobbing.
43. TOM LAWRINSON: BURIED ALIVE AND LOVING IT – Underbelly Cowgate, 21:05. I’ve never seen any of Tom’s stand-up, but the sketches he’s been making with Sam O’Leary are among my favourite bits of online silliness. I’ve also heard from multiple people who saw his last show and were blown away by it, many of them people who specifically said they don’t usually enjoy traditional stand-up but that he was able to make it feel completely fresh and new. I always love it when I find people who can do that – do something that looks familiar but feels utterly new – so I’m really keen to see this.
44. TRYGVE WAKENSHAW: SILLY LITTLE THINGS – Assembly Roxy, 20:15. Trygve’s been away from the Fringe for seven years, but back in that run of years where clown and mime were dominating the scene, Trygve was one of the absolute kings of that genre, and reliably proved himself as possessing one of the funniest bodies in the world year in year out. This will be a very welcome return.
45. YURIKO KOTANI: THE MEANINGS OF LIFE – Monkey Barrel at The Hive, 13:55. Yuriko is a delight. I never fail to come away from watching her feeling brilliant about life and grinning from ear to ear. I first saw her when I used to be the resident MC of a weird little open mic night in Kentish Town, which would play host to various mad acts who would baffle me and who I would then never see again. Yuriko was one of the ones who made me sit up and go “Oh, that was fantastic, I hope I see her again.” So go and see her, and then go and see her again.

A Cool New Thing In Comedy – I’m guest starring in tonight’s episode of The Train At Platform 4, Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis’s Radio 4 sitcom about a train crew. I play a dickhead boorish CEO searching the train for his daughter, and it co-stars Rosie Cavaliero, Amy Gledhill, Gemma Arrowsmith and Katie Norris. It was such fun to be a part of!

What’s Made Me Laugh The Most – I got to watch John-Luke Roberts unearth his lockdown show It Is Better in Berlin last week and had forgotten the bit about the farmer, the fox, the chicken and the grain. It’s such a funny bit.

Book Of The Week – I’ve just started I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron, another collection of essays/memoirs/thoughts following on from the excellent I Feel Bad About My Neck. She had such a funny mind and I love her writing.

Album Of The Week – I DES by King Creosote. I’m still very much in the “Trying To Get Into Artists For Green Man Festival” phase of my listening habits. This new album from Scottish folk legend Kenny Anderson is so lovely that I don’t even mind that it ends with a 36-minute drone piece. It’s the most interesting drone piece you’ll ever hear, stuff actually happens in it. When I listen to the album, I don’t even skip the drone piece. Madness.

Film Of The Week – Deadpool & Wolverine. I hate the MCU and what it has done to cinema and corporate strategy more broadly, but I grew up thinking Wolverine was really cool and I heard that in this film Hugh Jackman put on Wolverine’s famous mask, so I got hooked in like an idiot. In many ways, this is exactly as bad as you’d expect – puerile, immature, cynical, smug, obsessed with the pointless perpetuation of its own corporate brand at the expense of anything difficult like story or character or heart. In other ways, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it – Hugh Jackman giving such an earnest performance in such a dumb film really made me laugh, Matthew Macfadyen proves himself as one of those actors who can take a really dogshit character with absolutely nothing on the page and wring every last drop out of it, and as the film goes on it becomes increasingly clear that it doesn’t really like the MCU either, and has some quite barbed things to say about how boring it is. So a real mixed bag. There’s an excellent gag about The Proposal which probably just about nudges it into being a 3-star film. I’m really shocked I think this.

That’s all for this week! As ever, let me know what you thought, and if you enjoyed the newsletter enough to send it to a friend or encourage others to subscribe, I’d hugely appreciate it! Take care of yourselves,

Joz xx

PS If you value the Therapy Tapes and enjoy what they give to you, and want to support my work and enable me to keep writing and creating, you can make a one-off donation to my Ko-Fi account, and it’s very gratefully appreciated.

PPS I found a Minion which I think was intended for kids to fist bump, but is also at the perfect height to punch an adult in the dick:

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