Comedy

Feature

Here’s everything from Edinburgh Festival Fringe

All our interviews and reviews from the world's biggest arts festival, Edinburgh Fringe.

Comedy Guide

Every year, the biggest, brightest and newest performance artists descend on Scottish capital Edinburgh to offer an immersive experience to countless visitors. Spread across music, theatre, spoken word, art and comedy, Edinburgh Fringe is truly a place like no other. The city transforms over the course of a month into a true celebration of creativity, as well as providing a perfect opportunity for some serious partying. Hundreds of venues across Edinburgh host the weird and wonderful, from mainstream names in comedy to abstract dance and theatre, and everything in-between.

Launched in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, the Fringe has rapidly outgrown its roots. The open access event boasts a range of free and ticketed events, with the festival championing both emerging talent across all areas and providing a platform for household names to test out new material. Predominantly known for its plethora of comedy shows, this year welcomed big names John Bishop, Jason Manford and Simon Amstell, who performed alongside promising shining lights in comedy such as Lauren Pattison and Patrick Turpin.

The amount of events, venues, stages and audiences have surpassed that of 2016, with the Fringe celebrating its 70th Anniversary in 2017. Last year saw 50,266 performances of 3,269 shows across 294 venues. If that sounds a little manic, it is… but in the best way.

The festival runs like a well oiled machine, from ticket purchasing to access to venues, and from food and drink to all-night entertainment. Shows run throughout the day, and late into the night. The entire city becomes a musical celebration, with street performers and impromptu comedy awaiting on every corner. It really is a unique experience.

Check out what happened when we took to the streets to find out what makes Fringe fans laugh, asking them for their favourite jokes in return for a Ticketmaster UK gift card. There’s some absolute comedy gems in here.

httpv://youtu.be//FUau96DU7Fg

This year, Ticketmaster headed up to the festival to take in all the action. We witnessed some incredible shows from around the world throughout the event, taking in a broad mix of new and established, and getting a taster of some of the tours born out of the Fringe.

We’ve been sharing the content throughout August, but have collated it below to make sure you, the comedy and festival fans, don’t miss a beat.

Here’s everything we caught, captured and talked about at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.


Interviews

Click on the names below to see our chats with some of the biggest, best, and emerging talent from the world and comedy and spoken word. Or, if you’ve got a little more time, you can watch the full Edinburgh Fringe interview YouTube playlist below.

John Bishop | Jason Manford | Milton Jones | Jimeoin | Lloyd Griffith | Stephen K Amos | Reginald D Hunter | John Robins | Sean KellyDaniel Sloss | Ned Boulting | Brennan Reece | Rhys James | Harry and Chris

You tell us your jokes at Edinburgh Fringe


Reviews

Check on the names below to find out what we made of their individual Fringe performances.

Brendon Burns & Craig Quartermaine | Brennan ReeceDane Baptiste | Iain Stirling | Jason Manford | Jess Robinson | John Bishop | John Robins | Josh Pugh | Lauren Pattison | Matt Richardson | Milton Jones | Ned Boulting | Patrick Turpin | Rhys James | Simon Amstell | Tim Vine


Session

As an extra special treat, we also met up with musical comedy duo Harry and Chris who performed an exclusive session live for us at the Gilded Baloon Teviot, in the heart of Edinburgh. Check out their Fringe session below:

httpv://youtu.be//pJR1lMY0MKs

And there you have it. An insight into the festival. Loads of the artists above are heading on UK tours once the Fringe is over, so keep your eyes peeled on our Comedy Guide for more from the peculiar world of laughter and joy.