Sami Abu Wardeh @ Pleasance Courtyard

Sami Abu Wardeh’s 2025 hour, Palestine: Peace de Resistance, felt like the show he was born to perform: a soaring triptych of clowning, standup and storytelling that made a powerful artistic contribution to its topic: Palestinian identity. This year, Wardeh (a clown by training) has a bold solution to the challenge of following up that beast, as he turns fully to stand-up, the element of those three that he’s least known for.

Well, Sami Abu Wardeh Hates You announces itself as a stand-up show. But the pleasures it offers are plainly ones that only a performer of Wardeh’s unique pedigree can provide: sublime, clown-inflected, high-energy storytelling. The hour takes us from Wardeh’s birth in Kuwait to his childhood in London, youth in Dubai, and recent tribulations as a clown and vocal advocate for Palestine. Wardeh’s not afraid to take risks – see, for example, a sequence where he tests out the sentiment that you “can’t say anything anymore” by trying on various national accents, or his directness when tackling Zionism.

This hour, like his last, is both a perfect showcase for the man’s prodigious talents and a wonderfully honed hour of personal storytelling. If Wardeh has landed his pivot to stand-up with aplomb, it’s not because he’s written the best jokes of the Fringe, but because he’s able to sell his material with such a sustained and infectious esprit that it’s easy to imagine him needing to sleep for a full 23 hours between shows.

Wardeh is not a man who does anything by halves, throwing his full clown arsenal at every act-out, every silly little song, and every audience interaction. If not every joke lands, or some risks pull him away from some audience members for a moment, who cares: our treat here is getting to spend an hour watching Wardeh try to do it all.

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Sami Abu Wardeh Hates You, Pleasance Courtyard (Beside), until 30 Aug, 10pm, £13.50-£16.50