The third and largest official on-sale brings a host of incredible acts to the Pleasance this summer. With returning Edinburgh Comedy award-winners, international companies, exciting new companies and debut comics, music, cabaret, live podcasts and children’s work. This unmissable programme has something for everyone.
Tim Vine returns with his new stand-up show Breeeep!, a mountain of nonsense, one-liners, stupid things, unlikely songs, wobbly props. Presented by Emmy-nominated actor Nick Mohammed (star of Apple TV+’s smash hit Ted Lasso), The Very Best And Worst Of Mr. Swallow gives us a mix of new, old, very old and previously unusable material with noise, maths, magic and the whole of Les Mis. Change is always hard and what better person to lead the men, selflessly by the hand into the new world than TV’s multi-award winning Jayde Adams in her brand new show MEN, I CAN SAVE YOU.
Vir Das, fresh off an Emmy nomination for his latest Netflix stand-up special, brings his brand new Wanted world tour to Edinburgh – a show about freedom and a journey into foolishness. Mary Beth Barone (creator and star of Comedy Central’s Drag His Ass) brings Silly Little Girl to the UK for the first time, sharing her chequered journey as an aspiring young starlet through to the present day. Tim Key (Alan Partridge, The Witchfinder) is back with an all-new show Mulberry, ruminating about the great indoors.
Critically acclaimed stand up, writer and actor Tiff Stevenson (Mock the Week, The Office, Game Face, ABC's The Weekly) invites you to spend an hour with a woman and her self diagnosed Sexy Brain. Join critically acclaimed and multi-award-winning comedian Nick Helm as he embarks on What Have We Become?, a show so insightful, so honest and so legitimate that it will fix all of society’s problems and lead the way to a new plane of existence. Njambi McGrath's hour of political comedy is the Attenborough of Kenyan history – it’s satire with a zing in Black Black. Edinburgh’s favourite Guardian-approved naughty boy Fin Taylor is back with his painfully funny stand-up in Daddy Self-Care.
Many comedians join the Pleasance programme to present their debut hours this summer. Join rising star Chloe Petts in Transience as she uses her trademark cerebral ‘laddishness’ to explore topics as far reaching as the darts and her (strictly non-romantic) love for the men who watch it. Social-media sensation and Chortle award-winner Rosie Holt debuts The Woman’s Hour, character comedy based on her hit satirical videos. Best Newcomer winner 2022 and star of BBC1's New Comedy Award, Celya AB talks about learning to swim at 25 in Swimming. In his intimate and highly anticipated Silly Boy, Rich Hardisty (C4, Netflix, BBC) takes us on a journey through the highs and lows of his unusual life. Bella Hull (as seen on BBC1, BBC3, ITV2, Channel 4) brings Babycakes, full of stupid, stupid jokes, never-before-heard gossip and scenes of a gorgeous nature. Welsh funny-man Morgan Rees brings Edinburgh his fast gags about growing up, modern day masculinity and jokes about bumming.
Based on his own personal love story, Cake from Sam Lake (Leicester Square New Comedian of The Year) is about reassessing your goals when things don't go how you planned. Party with carnage-wielding, mayhem-manifesting, award-winning, human disco ball Katie Pritchard, in her debut musical comedy hour, as she tries to figure out ‘who she is’ while possibly dressed as a pavlova.
From emerging idiot Frankie Thompson comes an anarchic one-woman adaptation of Cats (the musical); CAttS is a lip-sync ballet through the distractions and obsessions that help us cope with an increasingly dystopian reality. Host of BBC Sounds Wheel of Misfortune, The Guilty Feminist podcast and writer for Have I Got News For You, Alison Spittle tells us she’s an outwardly nice person who lives for confrontation in WET. Creator and host of Let's Go, Atsuko! A (woke) Japanese Game Show, a sold out monthly live show and hit weekly podcast, Atsuko Okatsuka now comes to Edinburgh with The Intruder. Humiliating and outrageous, New York comedian and Fringe newcomer Emily Wilson shares the story of her experience as a finalist on The X Factor USA at the disastrous age of fifteen in Fixed.
Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee and NHS doctor Kwame Asante presents a hilarious, witty and heartfelt introspective on the place of religion in modern life, modern love, and modern medicine in Living in Sin. An epically funny action-adventure and follow-up to the smash-hit Don Rodolfo, Ciarán Dowd (winner, Edinburgh Comedy Award) presents King Rodolfo and takes us to one of the most bloody, violent and sexy periods in history. Edinburgh Best Newcomer nominee Sara Barron returns with a blistering new hour of stand-up on smart sex, dumb kids, conception, rejection and wine-in-a- can in Hard Feelings. Now he’s finally allowed to reconnect with human people again, Edinburgh Comedy Award Nominee Brennan Reece has forgotten how to do it and needs your help. For the 75th birthday of the Edinburgh Fringe Arthur Smith writes a love letter to this playground of the imagination and recalls some of the triumphs, disasters, love affairs and arrests of his many Augusts in My 75 years at the Edinburgh Fringe.
And there’s more! BBC New Comedy Award winner, Japanese Londoner Yuriko Kotani was about to make a change and have a fresh start in her life until kaiju showed up (Kaiju About). World-famous prankster and Lee Nelson creator Simon Brodkin is back with his highly anticipated new stand-up show Messed Up. In 2017, Red Richardson and pop sensation Ollie Murrs (amongst others) were caught in a major police incident and here he tells us all about it in Shots Fired. A brand-new stand- up show from the fringe favourite Lucy Porter (Would I Lie to You, QI), Wake-Up Call is a show about revelations, realisations and epiphanies - both large and small. With over 10 million views of his online videos, comedian and impressionist Luke Kempner is one of the UK’s hottest mimics and stand-up comics and now he’s coming to Edinburgh with Macho Macho Man.
Fresh from their universally adored BBC Three pilot, Charly Clive and Ellen Robertson make their long-awaited return to the Fringe with a sketch show about love in Britney: Friends and Nothing More. After two sell-out Fringes, Tessa Coates is beside herself with excitement to be back with Get Your Tessa Coates You’ve Pulled. Winner of Comedian's Comedian, Chortle Awards (2020) Jack Tucker returns with Comedy Standup Hour. Comedians Rachel Fairburn and Kiri Pritchard-McLean bring their smash hit true crime podcast, All Killa no Filla, to the Edinburgh Fringe as a late-night show. Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee, and one of the best and most prolific joke-writers of his generation, Glenn Moore puts in another shift in Glen Moore: Will You Still Need Me, Will You Still Feed Me, Glenn I’m Sixty Moore.
Despite everything that's happened, Tom Rosenthal is still talking about his penis in Manhood and how he has spent his life trying to avenge the theft of his foreskin. Following his critically acclaimed debut and Soho Theatre Live comedy special (Amazon), award-winning comedian Kai Samra returns with Native, about race, class, youth homelessness, Birmingham, India and 2010 indie-rock bands. Matt Forde (Spitting Image, British Scandal, The Last Leg, The Royal Variety Performance) lashes out right, left and centre and chucks in some funny voices too in Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right.
Improv requires incredible skill and knowledge and a lot of great suggestions from the audience. Hilarious new improvised comedy from members of Tony and Olivier Award-winners, Mischief Theatre, and Olivier winners, The Showstoppers, Star Quest is an homage to everything from Star Trek to Galaxy Quest - boldly go where no improv has gone before. A classic murder mystery is created on-the-spot in this ingenious and hilarious show in Murder, She Didn’t Write. The Improvised Doctor Who Parody is back - travel on an adventure made entirely from your suggestions and be home in time for tea.
If you just can’t decide, many shows offer mixed bills or changing special guests. Total sell-out 2005- 2019 AAA Stand Up is back and there’s a late night version too with AAA Stand Up Late. A raunchy, chaotic and full-on fringe experience, Stamptown: Comedy Night is a late-night variety show featuring the best alternative performance on the international circuit. Fast Fringe is an unmissable Edinburgh Fringe institution where 12 top comedy and variety acts perform ridiculously short sets in one furiously fast-paced showcase, hosted by the best MCs in the business. New Zealand’s favourite improv show and the sell-out hit of the 2019 Fringe SNORT returns with New Zealand’s best comedians and a brand new guest every night. The critically acclaimed, cult, comedy TV show is back; every night, become part of the studio audience for a live TV show full of surprise guests, live music, grumpy puppets and technical hi jinx in The Mr Thing Show.
Tickets for all shows are available at www.pleasance.co.uk or by calling 0131 556 6550.
