Kate Smurthwaite usually does political shows at the Fringe and usually gets overlooked by the critics. This year she decided to opt for a storytelling show and judging by the star ratings she gathered up has had her best year ever. In The Last Mayor of Fihalhohi Smurthwaite tells a quickly captivated audience the tale of her unique lockdown. Not for Smurthwaite panic-buying loo rolls and making sourdough. She grabbed the last flight out of the UK and ended up on a tiny island on the Maldives.
Her story has you gripped from soup to nuts – and on this island there are definitely plenty of nuts. Smurthwaite makes you care for the nice people and despair of the villains. You'll laugh, you'll wipe away a tear, you may even learn a new game about sleeping with people from different countries which Smurthwaite excels at. She might be perennially overlooked by Edinburgh judges but that sounds like a prize she could win.
Elsewhere I was looking forward to the debut stand-up show from Inbetweener/Fresh Meater Joe Thomas. Trying Not To Panic was his story of how he is trying to break away from his usual acting roles. It has its moments – the tale of auditioning in LA has all the wincemaking culture clash notes you would expect – but didn't quite feel fully formed, even though this was a show that critics were allowed to review. Maybe I've just seen Thomas in too many things onscreen but he seemed to be acting the role of a stand-up rather than actually be one. He's very amiable though and honest about his mental health issues. I'm sure Inbetweener/Fresh Meat fans will love his show, though that's probably not the reason he is doing it.
Philosophy Pig, from Alex Farrow was an interesting set which mixed musings on popular culture with musings on deeper philosophy. Fans of philosopher of the mind Thomas Nagel will certainly enjoy Farrow's take on Nagel's thesis that a human being can never, ever come close to understanding how a bat sees the world. Though I'm not sure if that's the kind of quote that would work on a poster. How about "Features the best Cardi B joke of the Fringe 2021"?
Farrow was also fronting the daily Stand Up Philosophy show and I nipped in to catch a short set from Isabelle Farah, whose show Ellipsis created enough of a buzz in the first week of the Fringe that she returned for a second bite at the Fringe cherry over the final weekend. A schedule clash meant I couldn't catch the full set but her turn at Stand Up Philosophy, in which she mused sharply on office life and being half-English, half-Lebanese, confirmed that she is one to watch. Farah only quit her day job in February 2020 – at the time it could have been a foolish decision. It is now looking like the best decision she has ever made.
Another comedian who seemed to have a great Fringe was Tom Little. By the time I caught him he was doing three shows a day to meet the demand. He's an unashamed crowdpleaser which might be just what this Fringe needed – without hype or PR punters were walking into gigs with no idea what they would get, but Little certainly delivered big laughs. He is partial to quirky observations about everyday things, from crisps to biscuits but finds a fresh angle on even the most mundane of topics. You also get a bit of Wordsworth from this Cumbrian comic, where he takes a rather wonderful detour away from the original.
I'd love to have seen more shows. I didn't make it to the Corn Exchange where, by all accounts, Daniel Sloss, Henning Wehn and others had great runs. I didn't make it to Tim Key's solo show or his fun live version of the online game show No More Jockeys with Mark Watson. Naturally stand-up legend Watson did lots of odd things and I contrived to miss all of them. The Spirit of the Fringe was definitely in full effect in Edinburgh this year – you just had to look a little bit harder for it.
