Edinburgh Fringe 2023: The comedy lineup so far

Get set for the madness to return. Edinburgh Fringe tickets are already up for grabs with some of the best comedians in the UK and beyond heading to Edinburgh this August. Here are some of the highlights from the biggest stage for live comedy in the world.

The Stand Comedy Club

The Stand were among the first off the mark with announcements, with a host of legendary names in British comedy returning to the Edinburgh club’s Fringe roster across their four rooms and the New Town Theatre. Stand regular Stewart Lee is back on the bill with Basic Lee, and sometimes Chase quizzer Paul Sinha returns with Pauly Bengali. Both brought hugely popular shows to The Stand last year, and their tickets are sure to go fast. We’ve had to wait a bit longer to see a new Fringe show from the brilliant Bridget Christie, who was the Edinburgh Comedy Award winner back in 2013, so her Fringe return Who Am I? will also be highly anticipated.

Stewart Lee. Photo: Steve Ullathorne

Elsewhere, The Stand welcomes back more Fringe regulars like Jo Caulfield (Razor-Sharp), Robin Ince (Melons: A Love Letter to Stand-up Comedy), and Seann Walsh, who has two shows, Heard It and WIP show I’m Just Trying to Get Through the Day. There’s also Tom Stade (Natural Born Killer), Seymour Mace (Seymour Mace Does Drawring), and Susan Morrison (Susan Morrison Is Walking Funny) – the latter is hosting an Edinburgh walking tour. Among the fresher-faced talent heading to The Stand you'll find Marjolein Robertson (with her show Marj), Gareth Waugh (Wouldni Be Me) and Robin Grainger (An Audient with Robin Grainger).

Monkey Barrel

Olga Koch. Photo by Matt Stronge

As ever, Monkey Barrel have a huge number of exciting and innovative standups announced as part of their Fringe programme, with comics of all stripes across their main spaces on Niddry Street, as well as The Tron and The Hive. Olga Koch will be looking back on a late-in-life gap year that’s less Eat Pray Love and more Shake Scream Cry with her new show Prawn Cocktail. Alison Spittle will be blending jokes and rage in her show Soup. The dryly funny Amy Matthews, meanwhile, will be oscillating between stability and restlessness in her new hour I Feel Like I'm Made of Spiders.

The brilliant Ahir Shah is back with Ends, his first full fringe show in four years. Sam Lake builds on his sparkling debut last year with new hour Aspiring DILF, in which he details his odyssey to become the world’s youngest daddy you’d like to, well… you know. Krystal Evans is sure to be on blistering form with The Hottest Girl at Burn Camp. Whirlwind comic Andrew O'Neill has new show Geburah, and Mat Ewins, the multi-media wizard and self-proclaimed “king of online”, joins the Monkey Barrel family with new show Mr TikTok.

More Skinny favourites at Monkey Barrel include Josh Glanc, who’s back with a collection of his best bits (Collections 2023). Viggo Venn was one of the word of mouth stars of last year’s Fringe with his Free Fringe show Club Comedian at Banshee Labyrinth; he’s bringing it back this year with a midnight slot at Monkey Barrel. You’ll also wanna catch MC Hammersmith, who’s heading to Edinburgh from the ghetto of middle-class west London with a new impro show of his jaw-dropping and surprisingly good (given he looks like Louis Theroux’s nerdier younger brother) comedy rap in Straight Outta Brompton.

There’s plenty of local talent on Monkey Barrel’s programme too, such as duo Elf and Duffy with Heist, a physical show with Visual Vernacular (VV), conducted in British Sign Language with some very violent live sound foley. Marc Jennings is back with his most personal show yet, Away From Here. Fellow Glaswegian Rosco McClelland has a show about “taking chances, even when the consequences are certain death” (Bring Out Your Dead). Stuart McPherson tries to make sense of his crazy, hazy year in Love That For Me. And Christopher MacArthur-Boyd brings a new hour musing on, among other things, Edinburgh Zoo, going for a walk, and the collapse of the British state – so something for everyone.

From further afield there’s Aussie comic Laura Davis with Well Don't Just Stand There Dancing, featuring gags on parties, spiders and, perhaps most importantly, the spectre of fascism that stalks us all. Tatty Macleod aka the French TikTok Lady heads to Monkey Barrel with her debut show featuring astute observations on French and British culture, and Japanese comic Yuriko Kotani returns with another sure-to-be-unique set, titled This Is My Work.

There are also some of our favourites from Fringes past going to Monkey Barrel with mint-fresh work-in-progress shows. Who wouldn’t want to see the chaotic inner workings of how a set develops from the likes of Catherine Bohart, Larry Dean, Sarah Keyworth, Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Jamali Maddix and the darkly surreal sketch trio Tarot?

Pleasance

Kieran Hodgson

The Pleasance Courtyard will also be one of the buzziest arenas for comedy fans in August. First on our list of Pleasance shows is the mighty Ania Magliano, who’s got a new routine that plenty should identify with – receiving a really terrible haircut (I Can't Believe You've Done This). We’re also keen to catch the new one from Chloe Petts, who’s promising to be much ruder than she was last year (If You Can't Say Anything Nice). The perenially Edinburgh Comedy Award-nominated Kieran Hodgson is also back at the Fringe with a new show all about the experience of moving north of the border (Big in Scotland); how that will go down on home soil, though?

Ivo Graham has become a bit of a Pleasance mainstay. He’s back with a show spiralling off of his brother’s comment that 'Humiliation's your thing, right?' As Mark Watson enters his 40s, he returns with an existential-sounding hour where he’ll be searching for meaning in this ol’ world, appropriately titled Search. Marcus Brigstocke will be talking cheese while having a good old moan with Cheese and Whine, while Paul Merton returns with his ever-popular Impro Chums.

In terms of newer acts, look out for Bronwyn Sweeney with Off-Brand, which is described as “part TED talk, part disappointing therapy session”. We’ve also heard great things about NYC-based comic Chloe Radcliffe; her Fringe debut is Cheat. Alexandra Haddow is another exciting new talent on the rise. Her show (Not My Finest Hour) is about all the things she’s got wrong in life – you know, relationships, sex, feminism, kids, even dancing. Leila Navabi is another Fringe newbie. Her debut, Composition, is described as “an audacious punk musical-comedy show about the dubious ethics of artistically exploiting marginalised identities for social gain”.

André de Freitas’ show What If explores how he went from living in his car to becoming one of the biggest young comics in Portugal, via a stint as a male escort. Janine Harouni’s sophomore Finge show sounds like a wild ride too. Titles Man’oushe, it sees the New Yorker exploring her Arab roots, pregnancy and what happens when your mail-order DNA test does not go to plan. Geordie rising star Louise Young’s Fereal is a show all about class, chaos and coming out. Moses Storm has been touring the US for years, but makes his Edinburgh debut with a show all about being raised in an unsuccessful doomsday cult (Perfect Cult). Paddy Young has been recommended by the likes of Joe Lycett, Seann Walsh and Stewart Lee, and makes his Fringe bow with Hungry, Horny, Scared. Josh Jones was among the Best Newcomer nominees last year, so his follow-up Gobsmacked is sure to be popular.

Ace comedy duo Max & Ivan are back with Life, Choices. Stamptown remains the wildest showcase of the Fringe and will be back with the hilarious Zack Zucker (or possibly his alter ego Jack Tucker) at the helm, and other Pleasance shows to look out for include Simon Brodkin’s Xavier, viral star Rosie Holt with That's Politainment! and a work-in-progress show from the brill Rachel Parris.

Gilded Balloon

Gilded Balloon offers up loads of character comedy like the perma-tanned Gary: Tank Commander (Gary Talks), Gabby Killick (Conversations with My Agent), sailing instructor Scott Murphy (About a Buoy) and Kathy Maniura (Objectified), in a show in which she prepares to be objectified, ie pretends to be a bunch of objects live on stage. After a sold-out run at the Fringe last year, Grace Campbell returns with A Show About Me(n), and literature fans will find much to chuckle about with Robin Ince’s second Fringe show, Weapons of Empathy.

There’s also Juliette Burton sharing a “manual for the mind” with her show No Brainer, the debut from Taiwanese comic Kuan-Wen Haung (Ilha Formosa) and Scottish standup Jay Lafferty will be at Gilded Balloon with her new show Bahookie. We also love the sound of John Robertson's The Dark Room, in which the audience is trapped in a retro videogame with a sadistic, end-of-level boss. Also look out for Gilded Baloon’s So You Think You're Funny competition heats and final, where you’ll see future standup stars cutting their teeth.

Underbelly

Underbelly welcomes back Edinburgh Fringe veteran Paul Foot with a new show explaining why 2022AD was a landmark year for this absurdist comedian. Joe Sutherland will be continuing his assent to greatness by attempting to follow the like of Gervais, Chappelle et al and get cancelled, but does this queer, socialist, vaccinated comic have what it takes (Joe Sutherland Is Cancelled)? And the inventive Alex Franklin is back with the gloriously titled I Must Reach the Summit, Please God I Must Reach the Summit.

Charlie Vero-Martin.

Self-confessed comedy nepo baby Elliot Steel (son of Mark) returns with Love and Hate Speech. Emmanuel Sonubi will be building on last year’s Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Newcomer nomination with Curriculum Vitae. After work-in-progress at Glasgow Comedy Festival, Charlie Vero-Martin presents new show Picnic, and Joe McTernan – the Edinburgh comedian and co-creator of the sitcom MUFF alongside Daniel Sloss and Craig Hill – makes his solo fringe debut with Life Advice That Won't Change Your Life. Sooz Kempner's new show (Y2K Woman) takes her back to her salad days late in the year 1999, when the PlayStation 2 was about to launch and the Millennium Bug was gonna make the world end. Also make time to catch a night of BATSU!, Underbelly’s outrageous new late-night comedy experience, which comes from Across The Pond and we’re told features electric shocks, paintballs, giant chickens and other jaw-dropping punishments.

Assembly

Assembly have fewer standups on their roster, but the ones they do have are household names. Frankie Boyle will be doing his Lap of Shame. Ed Byrne will be testing Mark Twain’s theory that comedy equals tragedy plus time by mining the most tragic event in his life for laughs (Tragedy Plus Time). Simon Evans muses on his failing memory with Have We Met? Reginald D. Hunter is at Assembly Rooms with his work-in-progress show The Man Who Could See Through Shit, and the brilliant original Rob Auton brings The Rob Auton Show, his new show all about, well, Rob Auton. 

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Tickets for all the above shows and more are available at tickets.edfringe.com