Edinburgh Comedy Festival

Comedy Day Planner

29 Jul 2009

Not sure what do you with your time, but really want to see some good comedy? Brian Donaldson helps sketch out your mirthful itinerary between lunchtime and the witching hour, from The Early Edition to Late ‘n’ Live

Breast in show: WitTank

Among the best new sketch acts around, WitTank are more than just a dodgy pun.

29 Jul 2009

When you’re gathering up your all-shiny new comedy group, a few key questions have to be posed. Do we go for silly or scary sketches? How many members are too many? And most crucially of all, what the hell do we call ourselves? Whatever you may think of…

Kiosk of Champions

29 Jul 2009

The words ‘Horne’ and ‘Corden’ have struck terror into those preaching good things about young comedy in this country. But Stuart Goldsmith, the Scottish National Busking Champion of 2001, sees some positives oozing out of this pus-riddled BBC3…

Laura Solon: Bunny Girl

The last ever Perrier winner returns to the Fringe

24 Jul 2009

As a comedian who performs with a great deal of poise and has a taut, controlled quality about her, I wonder if Laura Solon is going to prove a somewhat distant subject for interview. My apprehension is soon dispelled in our small talk during which she…

Taking flight: Rhys Darby

Free from managing New Zealand's third hottest folk-comedy duo - Darby returns

24 Jul 2009

It’s 9am New Zealand time when Rhys Darby answers the phone. His three-year-old son had just left for day care, and finding the house suddenly peaceful again, Darby was signing up for Twitter. ‘I wasn’t planning on doing Twitter,’ he explains, those…

Serf abuse: Jamie Kilstein

The US firebrand comic on mixing politics with comedy

24 Jul 2009

If you haven’t yet, it’s probably time to start getting excited about Jamie Kilstein. For a while, the American has been the comedian that other comedians get excited about: beloved beardie stand-up Daniel Kitson called Kilstein one of 2009’s Edinburgh…

Rebel With a Cause - Jack Whitehall

He's fresh out of his teens, and already onto our screens. Mum still does his washing though.

24 Jul 2009

Given the small screen and stage swagger and poise of Jack Whitehall, it’s hard to believe that this bright young thing of comedy still lives at home with his parents. This startling fact will be centre stage of his debut solo Fringe show, Nearly…

Frisky and Mannish

Pop song parodies and mash-ups from anachronistic vocal duo

24 Jul 2009

Popular music is a serious matter, with the risk of ridicule for those who don’t know the Sugababes from the Sugarcubes, and Flo Rida from Tinchy Stryder. Luckily, singing duo Felicity Fitz-Frisky (Laura Corcoran) and Hansel Amadeus Mannish (Matthew…

Patrick Monahan

Family-friendly performer exploring our differences

24 Jul 2009

‘My mum’s Iranian, my dad’s Irish and I’m the only one in my house with a northern accent,’ says Teessider Patrick Monahan, explaining how he’s spent his whole life trying to ‘fit in’. Even now, preparing for his eighth year at the Edinburgh Fringe…

Marcel Lucont

Gallic arrogance with a passion for the female

24 Jul 2009

‘I am France’s premiere misanthropist and lover,’ persuades Marcel Lucont. ‘You can expect everything that’s important to be covered in my show. Life, love, sex, death, cheese, wine.'

Edward Aczel

Solving the world’s woes in a pleasingly shambolic way

24 Jul 2009

Having performed essentially the same critically-acclaimed non-show for the last two years, anti-comic Edward Aczel is planning something a little different for this Fringe, as he ambitiously Explains All the World’s Problems … And Then Solves Them.

Fears expressed over Fringe comedy festival breakaway plans

15 Apr 2008

If.comedy award producer Nica Burns has warned against breakaway plans by four of the Edinburgh Fringe's main venues. Following recent news that the Assembly, Gilded Balloon, Underbelly and Pleasance venues plan to promote their own Edinburgh Comedy…