Elf Lyons is The Woman on the Edge, a personal reflection on a breakup experienced while touring her last show. No fringe festival has been complete in recent years without some oddball clown confection from the idiosyncratic Lyons. This year's offering promises something unusually personal. Performances run at Pleasance Courtyard, 5-31 August.
Musical Improv and Celebrity Guests
Making Love with David Magidoff brings musical improv to the fringe, spinning comic gold from love-life stories volunteered by different celebrity guests at each performance. After sell-out runs in LA, American actor/comedian Magidoff appears at Assembly George Square, 7-23 August. Confirmed guests include Fran Healy, Mike Wozniak, and Rosie Jones.
Return of Cult Favorites
Joseph Morpurgo returns with Highlander 70, a show triggered by a visit to a car boot sale. The coming man in fringe comedy a decade ago, after the cult success of Soothing Sounds for Baby and other whipsmart multimedia hits, Morpurgo performs at Pleasance Courtyard, 5-11 and 20-30 August.
Jack Dee celebrates 40 years in standup with Jack's Joke Show, promising "Guaranteed no new material!" The comedy's most enduring curmudgeon performs his favourite old gags and anecdotes at Assembly Rooms, 17-23 August.
Rising Stars and Character Acts
Paddy Young, one of a dozen young comics who rose after SNL:UK, performs his lovelorn new set at Monkey Barrel, 4-30 August. Rosalie Minnitt returns with Clementine 2, the second live outing for her frenzied frilly-bonnet alter ego, at Pleasance Courtyard, 5-30 August.
Olga Koch, Russian-born comedian, addresses "masculinity, accountability and the stories we tell ourselves" in Fat Tom Cruise at Pleasance Courtyard, 5-30 August. Jordan Brookes presents The Part of You That's Always Screaming, exploring love, gossip, therapy, and our need to perform, at Pleasance Dome, 5-30 August.
Special Guests and Crowd Work
Kristen Schaal returns for five nights only with a comedy play "about an extraordinary soul hiding from the world because of a fantastic secret" at Pleasance Courtyard, 12-16 August. Crowd Work with Frank Skinner features a changing bill of comics casting scripts aside and taking on whatever the audience throws at them, at Assembly George Square, 17-26 August.
Rosie Jones returns with I Can't Tell What She's Saying, promising mischievous gags about "being single, the pressures of representing huge sections of the population, and gravy" at Pleasance Courtyard, 5-30 August.
Polemical and Intriguing Acts
Nish Kumar presents Angry Humour From a Really Nice Guy, a new work-in-progress navigating chaos and inequality, at Monkey Barrel, 5-30 August. Sami Abu Wardeh Hates You follows up last year's urgent Palestine: Peace de Resistance with a comedy show asking if hate can help us, at Pleasance Courtyard, 5-30 August.
Ahir Shah, winner of the biggest prize in live comedy in 2023, conjures with "love, money, family, responsibility, fear, forever and frogs" in Golden at Pleasance Courtyard, 6-30 August.
Newcomers and Clown Comedy
Ayoade Bamgboye, winner of last summer's best newcomer gong, trials Small Talk, turning her perceptive outsider eye on British small talk, at Monkey Barrel, 16-20 August. Frankie Thompson presents Horrible Things, an inventory of the intriguing, at Pleasance Courtyard, 5-30 August.
The Underground Monk Show, a crack team of hip clowns dressed as monks going crazy in a tent, is predicted to be the buzziest late-night nonsense at Assembly George Square, 5-30 August.
Lara Ricote returns with Inkling, already award-nominated in Melbourne, at Monkey Barrel, 5-30 August. Man Sings the Same Song Over and Over Again for an Hour by Aussie clown Conk (Connor Dariol) drives audiences delirious with delight, at Summerhall, 6-31 August.
Ania Magliano returns with Peach Fuzz at Monkey Barrel, 5-30 August. Rose Matafeo presents Work in Progress Morning Hour, workshopping something brand new at 11am, at Monkey Barrel, 17-30 August.
