Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Katherine Ryan: Little Miss Conception

Canadian comedian's hits Edinburgh with show about crucial early years

6 Jul 2011

As a little girl growing up in the Canadian smalltown of Sarnia (not a made-up place), Katherine Ryan’s parents put her forward into those pageants that only north Americans are capable of laying on. Yet even at an early age, Ryan showed a healthy…

Nude

Non-gratuitous meanderings for art’s sake

21 Aug 2008

Don’t worry, there is no gratuitous nudity in Nude, just two actors flexing and posing their naked bodies in close proximity to the front row. But it’s all done in the name of art, and the context of a life drawing class, in which the reluctant audience…

Russell Howard

Beat surrender

14 Aug 2008

Russell Howard can't resist a spot of testicular tomfoolery but, he tells Jay Richardson, his new act is less Buster Gonad than Jack Kerouac With his infectious, wide-eyed optimism currently offering a counterbalance to Frankie Boyle's unflinching…

Stonewall

9 Aug 2007

Doubtless huge progress has been made regarding gay rights in recent decades but there are still reports of gay people being persecuted across the world.

How to find work at the Edinburgh Festival 2011

How to find a job at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011

3 Jun 2011

Thousands of people descend upon Edinburgh at this time of year for the start of festival season and now is the time to begin your search for a job within the buzzing excitement. In a study carried out last year it found that 71% of volunteers had an…

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…

Debbie Does Dallas - The Musical

23 Aug 2007

There’s a very fine line between a send-up of a ropey cultural item and something that’s just plain ropey. Almost from its shrill opening bars it becomes crystal clear that Debbie Does Dallas – The Musical has crossed the line. The fundamental…

Lucy Porter

A set down to its bare bones

14 Aug 2008

While it may have been slightly dispiriting for Lucy Porter to hop out on stage to a less than packed auditorium, there's little in her jovial demeanour to suggest crushed hopes. To spend an hour in Porter's company is akin to having a litre of Jelly…

Circus Oz: 30th Birthday Bash

Acrobatics with an Aussie accent

7 Aug 2008

Characters in colourful costumes exchange banter with the audience, the live band plays a constant stream of Gogol Bordello-like polka and one act involves a dramatic take on Frankenstein's monster. This isn't your average circus. Far more theatrical…

Love letter to the transport system

Semi-autobiographical monologue inspired by the drivers who get people to places on time

22 May 2012

Love Letters to The Public Transport System, a beautifully crafted semi-autobiographical monologue inspired by the drivers who get people to places on time is to tour venues across Scotland from next month before a full Edinburgh Festival run this…

Comedy picks for the Edinburgh Fringe 2011

20 Jul 2011

David O’Doherty Two shows this year from the beloved man of lo-fi musical comedy with the high-laugh quotient. His usual brilliant sit-down/stand-up fare, David O’Doherty is Looking Up, is augmented by his debut on the one-man comic play scene. Rory…

Swede Dreams - Britt Ekland

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

22 Jul 2008

A true icon of the 60s and 70s, Britt Ekland has lived a life of glamour and glory. She tells Liz Joseph why she’s telling the Fringe her story and how she keeps from feeling her age.

Brazil! Brazil!

Capeoira kicks, samba hips and footie tricks

8 Aug 2010

Brazil! Brazil! is like the fantasy beach party everyone wants invited to. Chilled-out Brazilian beats to rival Astrud Gilberto, buff bare-chested guys wheeling out jaw-dropping capoeira kicks and backflips, voluptuous feather-topped girls in bling…

Britt Ekland: Britt on Britt

A Swedish sexagenarian’s exploits

14 Aug 2008

‘Who is Britt Ekland?’ So the former Bond girl and one-time wife of Peter Sellers begins her frank and surprisingly funny whistle stop tour of her enchantingly colourful life. Offering glimpses of the young starlet who entranced the likes of Rod Stewart…

Obong

Celebration of Nigerian music and dance

31 Jul 2008

It’s easy to lump African dance together into one big melting pot of bright costumes and tribal drums. In reality, not only does each country have a distinct style, so too does each region within it. Hailing from Cross River State in Nigeria, the Obong…

Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw set challenge with Fringe comedy show

Champion of new music finds comedy feet

6 Aug 2010

Radio 1 returns to the Fringe following last year’s Scott Mills The Musical. DJ Nick Grimshaw was set the challenge of writing a one-man show, with five weeks to prepare. Here, he explains the show he’ll perform this week. ‘Don’t get me wrong – I…

Warren & Hanbury: All to Bare

Comedy sketch show in the flesh

13 Aug 2009

These two small-town girls are a funny and smart comedy duo from Wales and Canada respectively, silly and sassy in perfect quantities and indeed willing to bare all (in the name of good humour, of course). They bring to Edinburgh sketches about lonely…

Tim Key interview: the poet discusses Edinburgh, Alan Partridge and 'sexy baths'

Comedy Award winner brings his Masterslut show to the 2011 Fringe

21 Sep 2011

The List has just presented Tim Key with two pages of facts about himself. ‘This is a very good piece of research,’ he says, commending the 16-year-old work experience person who compiled them. ‘I didn’t get to do anything like this on work experience.

Katherine Ryan: Little Miss Conception

An edgy story of pageant culture

8 Aug 2011

When Katherine Ryan is stopped in her tracks on hearing that someone in the audience has relatives in her very small Canadian home town of Sarnia, it marks a first for her Fringe debut show. There seems very little that will get in the way of this stage…

The best soup and sandwich places in Edinburgh

Where to find a quick, fresh and tasty lunch in the Scottish capital

3 Aug 2011

Making the most of a small space, Appetite Direct is a deli kitchen serving soups and salads alongside their speciality range of hot takeaway dishes, including fish pie, Vietnamese flavoured mince with rice and home-made hamburgers. Broughton…

Fringe 2011 comedy: 5 shows about parents

Scott Capurro, Tom Rosenthal, Catie Wilkins and Des Bishop

29 Jul 2011

Scott Capurro. In 2009, the San Francisco comic wrote movingly and warmly about the death of his mother, Donna. Now he’s turned his pain into Who are the Jocks? a show about his ‘best friend and coke dealer’. Pleasance Dome, 556 6550, 6–29 Aug (not…

Leo - Circle of Eleven’s new physical theatre show

Show juxtaposes projected film and live performance to comic effect

26 Jul 2011

Leo, the latest piece from Berlin theatre group Circle of Eleven, is a must for fans of visual and physical theatre. Indeed, fans of Aurora Nova – the late, lamented mini-festival of visual theatre, which ran on the Edinburgh Fringe from 2001–2007…

Once and for all, it's just a matter of opinion

Steve Cramer's festival blog

18 Aug 2008

I don’t know, perhaps it’s me. There’s always one show of every festival where a critic appears to be out of kilter with his peers. For me, this festival the show would appear to be Once and For All We’re Gonna Tell You Who We Are, So Shut Up and Listen…

Lucy Porter - Festival veteran

31 Jul 2008

Lucy Porter wanted to be like Kate Adie but ended up being more like Lee Evans. That’s what repeatedly coming to the Fringe does to you. She doesn’t mind though… The Edinburgh Fringe Festival ruined my life. That sounds melodramatic, but it’s absolutely…

Different strokes

1 Aug 2007

Having written one of the UK’s finest ever sitcoms, Sean Lock is back pounding the beat on the stand-up stage. Brian Donaldson talks to the man who has finally left bitterness behind