list.co.uk/festival Top Tips | FESTIVAL COMEDY
TOP TIPS: WEEK 1
Some of the best comedy in the Fringe’s first week
ADVENTURES OF THE IMPROVISED SHERLOCK
hour of stand-up about life and what comes after, death and what comes before, and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. cares. A comic odyssey through future selves, rare diseases and the chance to convince your son you’ve got some sort of backbone.
HOLMES Just the Tonic at La Belle Angele, 3–26 Aug (not 13), 2pm, £9 (£8). Preview 2 Aug, £7. Stars of Racing Minds and Impromptu Shakespeare take you on a thrilling new adventure each day through the underworld of Victorian Britain, packed with shady villains, red herrings and the brilliant deductions of London’s great detective.
TAMAR BROADBENT: BEST LIFE Underbelly Cowgate, 4–26 Aug (not 13), 2.20pm, £9 (£8). Previews 2 & 3 Aug, £6.50. Award-winning musical comedy about ambition, anxiety and avocados that asks, how do you know if you are living your best life?
AHIR SHAH: DUFFER Laughing Horse @ Cabaret Voltaire, 2–26 Aug, 2.15pm, free. Mr Shah returns to Edinburgh with a new
STUART GOLDSMITH: END OF The Liquid Room, 4–26 Aug (not 16), 2.50pm, free. Stu’s back with some thoughts on how it all works out in the end and whether anyone
3PM
GARETH WAUGH: OH BOY . . . ! Gilded Balloon Teviot, 4–26 Aug, 3pm, £9–£10 (£8–£9). Previews 1–3 Aug, £6. Sequel to 2017’s debut about honesty, this one’s all about the law of the playground, travelling companions from hell and accidentally fulfilling your teenage bucket list (if you exclude the failed rap career).
NOON
SANDERSON JONES: THAT’S THE SPIRIT!
Heroes @ Boteco, 2–25 Aug, noon, £5. Join social entrepreneur and comedian Sanderson Jones for an immersive hour of mindfulness, movement, laughter and song. Reset your soul with a dose of Pentecostal well-being (contains zero crystals).
ELVIS MCGONAGALL: FULL TARTAN JACKET
Voodoo Rooms, 4–26 Aug (not 14), 12.20pm, free. Join BBC Radio 4 regular and walking shortbread tin Elvis McGonagall as he bellows into the void of our post-truth world.
PHILL JUPITUS: FREEVIOUSLY Bannerman’s, 4–26 Aug (not 13), 12.30pm, free. Very much doing what it says on the poster, Freeviously is the revival of last year’s show, Up the Stand. Think of it as watching a DVD of Phill with a shoddy memory, and the commentary track on all the time.
1PM
DAD’S ARMY LUNCH HOUR Pleasance at EICC, 4, 9, 11, 16, 18 Aug, 1.30pm, £27.50 (£17.50). Preview 2 Aug, £22.50 (£12.50). Two actors play 25 characters in this Edinburgh and London hit transplanted to a specially created 1940s-style venue unique to this show, celebrating the 50th birthday of Croft and Perry’s quintessentially British sitcom. Enjoy two classic episodes and indulge in a hot lunch created by Prue Leith.
JEN BRISTER: MEANINGLESS Monkey Barrel, 2–26 Aug (not 15), 1.45pm, £5. Ever wanted to know the meaning of life? No, neither has Jen, she’s too busy trying to stop her twins from using her shoes as a toilet. Still, we’re only on this planet for a finite time, wouldn’t it be good to find a bit of meaning in your otherwise pointless existence?
2PM
SUSAN HARRISON IS A BIT WEEPY
The Voodoo Rooms, 4–25 Aug (not 13), 2pm, free. Susan Harrison’s latest multiple-character show, featuring a lonely woodland creature and a weather girl reporting on the Apocalypse. Her characters are inspired by sadness but performed with joy.
DANIEL COOK They’re everywhere from the internet to missing posters. Sometimes they might even be curled up in your lap. The wonderfully daft Daniel Cook is here this August to tell us all about his own cat. Who is called Carpet. Prepare to be beguiled by the former Delete the Banjax guy. Pleasance Courtyard, 4–26 Aug (not 14), 6.45pm, £7–£10 (£6.50–£9). Previews 1–3 Aug, £6.
1-8 Aug 2018 THE LIST FESTIVAL 73