comedy festival

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Party Nights ★★★★

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Party Nights ★★★★

As a rule, I don't repeatedly tell 50-odd people in a moderately sized room that "I deserve salmon" on a weekday evening, but such is the force of the Fringe and Emmy Blotnick's bubbly nature that it would have been churlish not to have joined in. The 31-year-old New…

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Hero Worship ★★

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Hero Worship ★★

Joel Sanders, who has lived on a canal boat moored mainly in the south of England for the past decade, has two shows at the Fringe. One, called Angry Boater, is about living on a boat with hypertension, few practical skills and against the advice of his late father who told him: "Jews don't live…

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Boycotted: Comedy from Israel ★★★

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Boycotted: Comedy from Israel ★★★

It's good to see three Israeli comedians pitching up at the Edinburgh Fringe, with a show free of government sponsorship and therefore – contrary to allusions in the title – not in danger of being boycotted by the local pro-Palestinian brigade. It's the first day of the trio's…

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Friday Night Sinner! ★★★

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Friday Night Sinner! ★★★

It was a Friday night and as I wasn't going to a Friday night dinner, so what better way to spend it than by going to Candy Gigi's mock-horror musical Friday Night Sinner!? The eerily lit action loosely follows the plot of Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard, with Gigi – aka 30-year-old Brit…

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Disabled Coconut ★★★★

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Disabled Coconut ★★★★

Aaron Simmonds has spent the past year working on his story-based show about how he was trolled online for not being disabled enough and it's clearly been time well spent. The 29-year-old comic, who has cerebral palsy and has used a wheelchair since he was 15, particularly loves being…

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100% Simon Brodkin ★★★★

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100% Simon Brodkin ★★★★

Simon Brodkin is best known as the sarf London geezah Lee Nelson, his comic creation who starred in three series on BBC Three. He's also gained a reputation for performing stunts on Donald Trump and Theresa May, scattering swastika-covered golf balls on the former's golf course…

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Miscarriage of Justice ★★★★

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Miscarriage of Justice ★★★★

To give President Trump his due – and this isn't the show to come to if you are a Trumpian – he has single-handedly made American politics more mainstream. Yet for all that, a little prepping wouldn't go amiss if you want to fully appreciate all the references and nuances in this…