Comedy
Review
Edinburgh Fringe 2025: as it happened
Join us on our tireless trail across Auld Reekie to see the best of what the world's biggest performing arts festival has to offer
We’ve landed in Edinburgh and spirits are especially high in a rare Scottish heatwave as bagpipers and performers brush shoulders with Oasis fans on their way to Murrayfield. Yes, look through the sea of bucket hats and Manchester merch and you’ll see a dizzying assembly of stand-up comics, circus performers, student theatre companies, drag queens, magicians and even mathematicians flyering down the Royal Mile and its cobbled side streets in hopes of standing out and bringing you to one of hundreds of venues to witness their art.
This is the Edinburgh Fringe, the world’s biggest performing arts festival, and over the next few days we’ll be taking you along to experience it with us. Below you’ll find our highlights, along with where and when might be able to see them again throughout the year.
Sharon Wanjohi
There’s something incorrigible and mischievous about Sharon Wanjohi’s In The House show, which is set up to feel somewhere between a 90s daytime chat show and a smoky, jazzy slam poetry night – with a tongue placed firmly in the cheek and showing no signs of movement. Though this energy can feel a touch green at moments, for the rest of the hour it disarms you with a shocking laugh or an emotional blow as she ultimately argues for the value of accepting and celebrating cringe in our lives. JB
David Elms
David Elms thinks adults should play more. From starting the improv group at the University of Edinburgh as a student in 2011 to creating his own playfulness platform, he’s long been an advocate for play’s ability to enrich adult life. Understanding this makes the premise of David Elms Describes A Room make a lot more sense, as the comedian quickly leaves the crowd to its own devices, gently guiding, questioning and encouraging us as we build an imaginary room around us. There are times where you begin to wonder where this is all leading to, but don’t worry, the payoff is worth it, and a huge part of the gooey, wholesome joy of this show is surrendering to it. JB
Stamptown
Where oh where to begin with Stamptown. The freakish brainchild of Zach Zucker – a New York comedian, actor and classically-trained clown who until fairly recently toured as one half of a double act with Britain’s Got Talent winner Viggo Venn – Stamptown is a cabaret that turns chaos into an understatement. It’s loud, bawdy and over stimulating, but utterly brilliant as Zucker seemingly does his best to keep the show together with the frenzied energy of a ringmaster on acid. The guests vary each night, and I’m not sure I can tell you here what one of them manages to do with a yo-yo, but it also features some of the best juggling I’ve ever seen and most offensive stand-up jokes I’ve ever heard. JB
Find out more about Stamptown here
Zainab Johnson
Zainab Johnson’s debut Fringe set is bursting with that all-American confidence, charisma and energy, with little moments of darkness and sarcasm that we love so much on this side of the pond. Whether it’s buying a house, gun ownership, opossum friendships or dating nice guys who aren’t for you, Zainab Johnson shows that no every aspect of life can be viewed with an optimistic twist. HR
Paul Merton & Suki Webster
Marital and comedic duo Suki Webster and Paul Merton have long been considered leading figures of the UK’s improv scene, as this full-capacity Grand at Pleasance Courtyard afternoon show confirms. It’s a pretty welcoming approach, as the pair go through some of the classic games of the genre, which naturally all involve audience participation. There’s ‘Puppets’, where one man from the front row needs to move Merton and Webster’s bodies as they act out a scene and in turn react to his puppetry (or lack thereof). ‘Shakespeare’ is also a highlight, as they imagine an Elizabethan scene based on a name of play suggested by another audience member. The addition of guests Sally Hodgkiss and Mike McShane especially helps here, particularly McShane, who starred in the British version of Whose Line Is It Anyway?; it’s certainly not his first iambic pentameter rodeo. But the dynamic between Merton and Webster is the star of the show, their married partnership giving Merton license to be extra cheeky and Webster lovingly scathing. JB
Paul Merton & Suki Webster’s Improv Show is touring the UK in October & November 2025 and again in March 2026 – find tickets here
Jason Byrne
Jason Byrne doesn’t add crowd work for filler – he makes it the star of the evening. So though this year’s show Head In The Clouds might point to his whimsical and random mind – and there are some hilariously abrupt topic changes tonight – he is certainly taking in his surroundings as he subtly scans around the Assembly Hall for his next subject. “I’ve said this before but you lot don’t need me,” he gasps as two of his picks react to each other from across the venue, leaving the rest of us in raptures. As always with Byrne, every show will be different, but you can be assured it will be an absolute hoot. JB
Jason Byrne is touring Head In The Clouds throughout October & November 2025 – find tickets here
Ivo Graham
Some comedians write their jokes and try to find a through-line after, to varying degrees of success. But a huge part of Ivo Graham’s ever-increasing appeal is the strength of the narrative his shows are built on. There will always be self-deprecating references to his Eton days or celebrity mates, but each new show has a clear theme which he layers humour, poignancy and autobiography on. This year is orange summer for Graham, as he nods knowingly as “a 34-year-old man a year late to a trend,” his tour posters simply featuring ‘ivo’ in the Brat font. It’s the opening night of his fringe run and it’s quite fun to see his slickness hedged with a bit of nervous energy as he talks us through his favourite orange things in life, a motive that began after his six-year-old daughter complained he didn’t have a favourite colour. There are references from everything from Drake to Swindon F.C’s 60s star Don Rogers, but the depth comes as we learn of his devotion to his daughter and his desire to be her ultimate role model. JB
Find tickets to Ivo Graham in 2025 here
Matt Forde
Edinburgh Fringe isn’t just a platform for laughs, but a place to exchange ideas, experiences and perspectives. It’s a perfect place to host The Political Party with Matt Forde, then, one of the UK’s most popular politics podcasts from the broadcaster, comic and impressionist. It’s especially apt today at The Gilded Balloon, in the days leading up to the publication of Nicola Sturgeon’s memoir, as Forde is joined by Joanna Cherry, the former SNP politician and respected KC who has famously critical of the former First Minister of Scotland. Cherry doesn’t hold back, calling Sturgeon’s leadership “Stalinist” as the pair cover topics from identity politics, Alex Salmond and SNP finance scandals. Expertly guided by Forde, the tone of this live recording is serious but the pace is peppy, and somehow we end on a lighter note as the two discuss Rod Stewart’s Glasto antics. JB
Matt Forde is touring his new stand-up show, Defying Calamity, from throughout 2026 – find tickets here
Hassan Al-Habib
Hassan Al-Habib’s show, Death To The West (Midlands) is so sharply polished you might see your own mouth gaping back at you in shock as he embraces and plays on the racial stereotypes he has experienced throughout life as the son of an Iraqi immigrant growing up in Birmingham. This show is all about identity – at times its shame, at others its pride, often contorting together in a way that ultimately gives this show its depth. There is a great line towards the end about how the role of comedy comes into all of this, but you’re better off finding that out for yourselves. For now, all I can think of is: “May Allah bless Martin Lewis.” JB
Pierre Novellie
A towering South African who grew up on the Isle of Mann with a French-Italian name, Pierre Novellie is certainly a man of multitudes. And while exceedingly well spoken and dressed like a teacher – in a suit bought from a tailors that specialise in stretchy muscle clothing for bouncers – it soon becomes clear that his vanilla facade hides a chaotic beast lying beneath. And yet, his observational style is sharp, and will especially hit home for 30-somethings transitioning to become real adult life. JB
Joe Kent-Waters
Imagine a place where Phoenix Nights meets The Mighty Boosh and The League of Gentlemen and you’ll be thirsty enough for a pint in the The Misty Moon, a working men’s club owned by the ghoulish landlord Frankie Munroe – “Yorkshire’s biggest bastard.” Or at least it was until the devil pulled him down into hell by his balls. Joe Kent-Walters is Frankie Monroe: DEAD!!! (Good Fun Time) is the sequel to his universally acclaimed first show at last year’s fringe, Joe Kent-Waters has done it again with his rapid Northern quips and a Sudocrem-smeared face that grins and gurns under the red lights of Cabaret Voltaire like Uncle Fester performing Bertolt Brecht. The story feels familiar enough that you can see what’s coming, and yet somehow also entirely Kent-Walters’ own, as Munroe attempts to return to The Misty Moon after a stint as hell’s Chief Entertainment Officer in order to save it from £7 IPAs and pizza served in jars. There are even some bizarrely catchy tunes in the mix too. An absolute highlight of Edinburgh Fringe 2025. JB
MC Hammersmith
Can you link a tabernacle, hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia and a mile into one seamless rap? Quite possibly not, but MC Hammersmith is a comedian who quite certainly can. MC Hammersmith has carved a niche for himself as a comedian rapper, boldly encouraging the audiences to surprise eachother and himself with words and questions he will then improvise into a rap on the spot. If you’re not afraid of audience participation you can revel in this quick thinking comedian’s upcoming tour again and again as every show promises to be different! HR
MC Hammersmith is touring Hippety Hoppety Get Off My Property in spring 2026 – find tickets here
Ivo Graham (…again)
However much I enjoyed Orange Crush, I did leave wishing there was a big music moment, as on last year’s Grand Designs, where he built his narrative to a climax that synced up to the drop of LCD Soundsystem’s Dance Urself Clean. There’s a lot of Graham’s background I don’t share, but as another 34-year-old with similar music tastes, the comic’s use of music in his shows has helped me connect to him which naturally enhances my attachment to his show. It’s both satisfying and also a touch devastating, then, when Graham weaves music throughout Graham Back In The Green, a monologue in which he reflects on grief and love, Palestine and privilege, bitterness and bliss, fatherhood and family in a way that already hits home before a singalong of a song he and his father have a shared love for, Sam Fender’s ‘Seventeen Going Under’. It’s pretty early in the day, but tears are trickling down a lot of faces as we hold lyric sheets and sing loudly with him. JB
Find tickets to Ivo Graham in 2025 here
Rosie Jones
I Can’t Tell What She’s Saying, the new tour from the ubiquitous Rosie Jones, begins in just a few weeks, so it’s not very long before it needs to lose its Work In Progress disclaimer, as it has here in Edinburgh. Thankfully, the WIP can f*ck right off. Sorry, I’ve been watching too much Rosie Jones: the Bridlington-born stand-up certainly still loves to land a hefty expletive, often in the punchline as she builds a pretty much already complete show about love life and Darrens (like a male Karen), and how both feed in to her experience as a gay woman with a disability. JB]
Find tickets to Rosie Jones in 2025 here
Emmanuel Sonubi
Club goers may have once restrained themselves around ex-bouncer Emmanuel Sonubi, but the crowd in Pleasance Courtyard could not hold back their laughter at his retelling of his party days, family life and humble lifestyle. However, there’s more to this stand-up show. Emmanuel lays bare on the stage his near death experience, bringing poignant moments to his routine. HR
Emmanuel Sonubi is touring Life After Death September – November 2025 – find tickets here
Glenn Moore
There are all kinds of humour styles brewing in a Glenn Moore show, from meta comedy and props to cheap, crude gags and good old wordplay you can’t believe you didn’t see coming. But what makes his plate-spinning all the more impressive is the speed and fluidity with which he can deliver them, as if he’s fitting two hours worth of jokes into half of the time and barely stumbling a word at all. It can be a bit dizzying, and as he steps into an aside here or there and returns to his through-line, there are a few moments where it feels like you’re playing catch up (not least the transcriber, who has insanely fast fingers), but the content of the show is so rich it doesn’t really matter. JB
Glenn Moore is touring Please Sir, Glenn I Have Some More October and into 2026 – find tickets here
Rachel Galvo
Rachel Galvo introduced herself to the comedy world with The Shite Feminist at the Fringe in 2024, albeit a show that was green and needed some time to refine. “Last year my main goal was to just try and make people laugh when I was just kind of chasing after laughter and uncomfortable in silence,” Galvo tells Ticketmaster, “whereas this year, I care more about a message, a story and trying to bring an audience with me.” This year’s iteration at Pleasance Dome is punchy and polished, the Dublin-born comedian fast and slick in her storytelling and raucous gags as she regales us with tales from her upbringing as an awkward teenager in an all-girls school run by nuns. She has a lot of fun with the crowd, probably riffing with them once or twice too much towards the end as the arc of her story and the meaning behind its name takes shape, but her excitement and glee is infectious. Expect it to spread far and wide throughout the rest of the year. JB
Rachel Galvo tours The Shite Feminist throughout October & November 2025 – find tickets here
