The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is just about to get underway, so to give you a bit of a preview of some of the best comedy acts to choose from out of the 270 options throughout the 25 day festival, here’s our top picks. The Fringe will be taking place between the 1st and the 25th August 2014 and tickets are on sale already, so if you’re planning a trip up to Edinburgh for some laughs this summer, you’ve got the ramblings of our wildly out of touch stand-up comedy news team to go on at least.
As well as featuring some of the most exciting comedy shows in the land, the festival will also play host to the Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards in a bid to take all of the disparate talents in show and distil them down to one overall winner. There will also be an award for the best new comedian to give the little ones a chance to spread their wings and fly like a infant albatross on a coastal air stream. The nominations will be announced on the 20th August 2014, and the awards presentation takes place on the 23rd.
Stuart Laws When’s This Gonna Stop?
Stuart Laws is starting to build up a reputation for energetic performances and audience participation, following on from his debut Fringe Festival show in 2013. This time around he asks the ultimate frustrated question, “when’s this gonna stop?”, which is like the adult version of, “are we nearly there yet?” He’ll be performing at the Banshee Labyrinth between the 2nd and the 23rd August 2014, with the exception of his two Tuesdays off on the 12th and 19th August in which he’ll be answering his own question for a 24 hour period.
Susan Calman: Lady Like
It’s another year at the Fringe for Susan Calman, who’s become a regular feature at the festival, and who can blame here when she’s just got to hop on a train from her native suburbia in Glasgow. The show is a cosy ride through the comfortable life of Su, who’s become known as the mad cat lady by her neighbours, as she waxes lyrical about her every day ups and downs and saunters around in her best plaid suit. The show will start with 2 previews on the 31st July and the 1st August 2014, before getting into full swing until the 24th August. Tickets for the shows on the 4th and 5th August have already sold out.
Stephanie Laing: Nincompoop
Stephanie Laing takes the concept of a silly young women with slightly off-kilter tendencies to the extremes in her new show for the festival, Nincompoop. Sadly for her it’s not a damning analysis on the state of the modern female masses, putting feminism back decades, but more a self confessional about odd noises, drawings of ducks, vomit, and a slightly crazed song about a newt. Ahh, int she cute. The show runs from the 2nd to the 24th August 2014, with the exception of any of the Tuesdays, at the Globe Bar.
Robert Newman’s New Theory of Evolution
Having been away from The Fringe for a while, it’s good to see Robert Newman’s coming back to Edinburgh for 2014. Following up on his brilliant History Of Oil show, his new set looks at the personal disaster stories and lucky random near misses, scrapes and escapes that led him to the discovery of a new theory of evolution, which he’s called Survival Of The Misfits. With talk of Tsarist Russian princes and Richard Dawkins it’s bound to be another thinking man’s set from Newman.
The show will be playing at the Stand in the Square between the 1st and the 25th August 2014, but Newman will be taking Mondays off to bathe in petroleum grade crude oil with every light in his apartment turned on as an amusing reference to his previous well-meaning comic susurrations, or something equally paradoxical.
Paul Savage Finds Every Joke in the Bible
When you’re told by your dad, who happens to be a Baptist preacher, that there’s just one joke in the bible, you’re bound to believe him, but as Paul has matured he’s managed to locate a plague of gags in and amongst the papyrus based text and his new show, he’s going to lay them all out for us one by one. While it’s fairly well trodden ground in general, the most recent of which was Ricky Gervais‘ Science, it’s probably not been quite so thoroughly covered from cover to cover before. Expect wizard battles, talking donkeys, invincible warrior monks, incest and genocide. Every Joke In The Bible will be running at the Dragonfly between the 2nd and the 23rd August 2014, sans le 12th.
Josie Long: Cara Josephine
Having picked up the Best Newcomer crown back in 2006 and subsequently being nominated for three comedy awards without ever picking up the title, you’d expect Josie to be feeling a bit “always the bridesmaid, never the bride, but she did get laid once in spectacular fashion back in the day”. However, optimism and cheer is what Josie does best and with a new show planned for the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, she’ll be bringing tales of love and the great outdoors to the Stand Comedy Club between the 1st and the 24th August.
Jimmy Carr: Funny Business
If you’re looking for some mainstream, big name comedy and don’t mind his stupid laugh too much you probably can’t go too far wrong with one of Jimmy Carr’s stand-up gigs at the festival. He’ll be performing his latest show, Funny Business, at Venue150@EICC on the 15th, 16th, 22nd and 23rd August 2014.
Bobby Mair: Off Meds
If your looking for some dark and vaguely visceral comedy delivery then Bobby Mair is your Lionel Blair guvnor. Anywho, he’s Canadian, looks like a tramp to the average American and a Hoxton-bound designer to the average Londoner, but all that aside he is very funny. You can catch Bobby Mair’s Off Meds at Laughing Horse at the City Cafe between the 1st and the 24th August 2014. Although he will be taking the 17th and 18th off to try some Olbas Oil, Vics Vaporub and sachets of Lemsip before getting back to brass tacks again on the 19th.
Adam Hess: Mustard
Having won the Chortle Student Comedian Award 2011 and then the Telegraph’s Best Tweet of 2013 – “Today’s date is xi.xii.xiii which is significant because it looks like a child doing star-jumps so well that a crowd starts to form.” – it’ll be intersting to see what randomness Adam Hess comes up with his new 40 minute show, Mustard. We’re big fans of the non sequitur comedy style of comedians like Mitch Hedburg and Hess is doing a pretty fine job of putting his own take on it.
