Edinburgh Fringe

Home
Shows
Venues
Features
Recommended
Awards
Info

Recommended 2024 shows

The BCG team sees hundreds of shows during each Fringe. Here is a list of our favourites from 2024, in alphabetical order. If you're intrigued by a show and are thinking of booking tickets to see it, click through to the listing for more information.

Shitty Mozart

Aaron Nemo (a writer on The Colbert Report) plays Shitty Mozart, a DNA clone of the genius composer who provides a solid hour of multimedia laughs at the end of your day. With his sidekick Mr Brightside in tow, there will be music, visual gags, bee attacks, jokes about penises and a vendetta against a reviewer. Great late night fun, especially for fans of Mat Ewins (which should be everyone).

Adam Riches: Jimmy

A magnificent performance from the Fringe favourite, and a big departure from his previous work. Adam Riches is tennis bad-boy Jimmy Connors - aided by some impressively choreographed sound effects, too.

Alex Franklin: Gurl Code

The super-likeable Alex Franklin explains her "trans girl" journey in this fast-paced joke-packed hour.

Alex Kitson: Must I Paint You a Picture?

Alex Kitson mixes dark and light well in this promising debut. The show builds to its key tale of his biggest secret, and the turns he takes to get there hold the attention throughout. One to watch.

Alexander Bennett: Emotional Daredevil

Many people think that "risk" in comedy means doing controversial material. Alexander Bennett demonstrates that there are much more worthy risks that you can take, in a tale of love, presents and emotion.

Alfie Brown: Open Hearted Human Enquiry

Back on stage and in his element, Alfie Brown has that old canny mischief back in his eyes. Of course Brown has all manner of deeply wounding confessions and revelations. He clearly has more than 55 minutes of karmic violence to autopsy in his lushly smug, superior metier.

Amy Matthews: Commute With The Foxes

Amy Matthews is becoming an extremely reliable Fringe presence. If there's any justice, 2024 will be a big year for her.

Andrew Doherty: Gay Witch Sex Cult

It turns out visiting a horror-filled island is one of the funniest things you can do at this Fringe. Andrew Doherty's one-man play delivers a great story, packed with comic moments.

Son of a Bitch

Son of a Bitch is a brilliant showcase for the multi-talented Anna Morris, who writes and performs a searing monologue about the repercussions of a mother's weak moment, caught on video screaming unspeakable language at her son. Morris's sharp script is packed with pathos and lots of laughs, her writing infused with wit, which is further emphasised by her pitch-perfect comic timing.

Arthur Smith and Phil Nice in OOF!

Fringe stalwart Arthur Smith and actor Phil Nice resurrect their 1980s double act Fiasco Job Job for a touching play that weaves Arthur's legendarily laconic gags through the story of their relationship. Utilising some of the material they used to do on the circuit, there was great affection from the audience, and huge laughs even at the most groan-worthy gags. It builds into a truly touching celebration of what it means to be a double act.

Ashley Gavin: My Therapist is Dying

A star of TikTok, US stand-up Ashley Gavin is a natural on stage. Despite her show touching on some serious topics that may bring a tear to the eye, there's plenty of big laughs to be found in this hour too.

Becky Umbers: Big Bad Beck and the Three Little Pigs

Becky Umbers has had some success back home in New Zealand, and deserves more attention here. Literally the most unique voice on the Fringe this year, and very funny.

Ben Target: LORENZO

Ben Target's honest and funny show about the give and take of palliative care is beautifully written and performed.

Benny Shakes: Respect

The Fringe is all about taking chances and finding new names to enjoy, and Benny Shakes certainly fits the bill. A confident and well-structured debut hour.

BriTANicK: Dummy

Fast and funny interwoven sketches, polished performances, big laughs and a brilliant reveal.

Bronwyn Kuss: Sounds Good

Bronwyn Kuss's show is a very strong Edinburgh debut. She uses her dry, droll delivery to brilliant effect, building tension just long enough for the punchlines to get the biggest laugh.

Burnout Paradise

Simple but brilliantly effective - three hardy performers undertake normal tasks, everything from cooking dinner to filling out a grant form, but on treadmills - glorious bedlam ensues.

Carl Donnelly: Boosegumps

The most chilled comedy survivor of his generation gives us an update. He's happy, he's had health scares and those intrusive thoughts are leading him astray. Masterful stand-up with the lightest of touches.

Chloe Petts: How You See Me, How You Don't

Expect great laughs about worthwhile topics. Chloe Petts' rise up to the big leagues continues.

Chris Cantrill: Easily Swayed

Chris Cantrill has been making us laugh for years as one half of The Delightful Sausage and his solo hour is imbued with the same no-nonsense whimsy, as he discusses middle aged friendship and support.

Cobin Millage: Fifteen Pints With a Wax Figure of Renowned Painter Pablo Picasso

Canadian Cobin Millage is a chirpy, merry prankster. He serves up surprise stunts and drawn out monologues but without the standard depressive, deadpan misanthropy. Inside baseball for freaks of the stand-up form.

Colin Hoult: Colin

Anna Mann superfans can rest easy: Colin Hoult is performing as himself for the first time, telling quality stories from quite an odd upbringing in Nottingham. There's still some top-tier audience interaction that's reminiscent of his former alter-ego, though.

Connor Burns: 1994

This is the show that's cementing Connor Burns as Scotland's next big stand-up star. Head along to see him demonstrate why.

Dan Tiernan: Stomp

We already knew Dan Tiernan had a comic persona to be cherished, now we know he can reliability turn out quality shows too. He's one-of-a-kind.

David Eagle: The Eagle Is Candid

Hartlepool's David Eagle brings his skills as a comedian and as an award-winning folk musician together to great delight. He's equally brilliant when it comes to telling tales about people's reaction to his blindness as he is when singing pornographic reworkings of George Formby on the accordion.

Dee Allum: Deadname

Dee Allum's softly-spoken delivery belies a wit that's as bright as her eyes. This debut hour on transitioning to womanhood is packed with jokes and an absolute joy to watch.

Demi Adejuyigbe Is Going To Do One (1) Backflip

Expect some of the most creative - and just outright hilarious - jokes of the Fringe. An all-conquering highlight of this year's festival. In fact, we may as well start calling Demi Adejuyigbe's show one of the all-time greats.

Devin Gray: How To Get Away With Marriage

This is a masterclass in writing. The gag count is insane. The show is high tempo, and high energy, with an incredible consistency of big laughs. From start to finish, the audience loved every second. You only get one shot at a debut, and Devin Gray has grabbed it with both hands.

Ed Night: The Plunge

One of the brightest comedic talents of his generation, Ed Night is back at the Fringe for the first time in 5 years and the joke rate is higher than ever. Expect material on colonoscopies and XL bullies as the show jumps from the relatable to the ridiculous. Less overtly political than last time but no less hilarious.

Elf Lyons: Horses

Ever the ebullient clown, Elf Lyons' latest show Horses is a joyful celebration of silliness. There's audience participation aplenty, and by the end everybody is raring to play in Elf's world.

Elliot Steel: Soft Boi Core

Powerful stuff from the evolving-geezer Elliot Steel, from right-up-to-date topical takes to his more personal struggles through a difficult year.

Eric Rushton: Real One

Eric Rushton was already exciting: new for this year is a clever overarching story and some lovely structural fun. He has a bright future ahead of him.

Frank Sanazi's Mein Way

Allowing that Frank Sanazi operates very much within the brackets of ironic bad taste, this greatest hits compilation is a show stopping cabaret victory. All the puns about genocide, dictators and terror are here both in spoken word and song form. Where the hour really flies though is in the dead-on recreation of The Rat Pack on-stage banter... only between Hitler and Stalin.

Garrett Millerick Needs More Space

More wonderful contrarianism from Garrett Millerick, this time with a theme: the space race. As dependable as ever.

Grace Mulvey: Tall Baby

An excellent debut show from Irish stand-up Grace Mulvey. She has laugh-out-loud routines crafted for many relatable topics.

Harriet Kemsley: Everything Always Works Out For Me

Life after divorce is 2024's show's raw throughline. Such a bittersweet event allows Harriet Kemsley to weave in just as many "I'm a walking disaster area" social and emotional pratfalls. The laughs cascade into each other at her breathless mile a minute pace, the glittering gold rush.

Hot Department

The energy Honor Wolff and Patrick Durnan Silva bring to the stage is incredible to witness. This is a sweaty, sexy and, perhaps most importantly, joyously silly sketch show.

Ian Stone is Keeping it Together

A faultless hour of stand-up from Ian Stone, touching on the topical while also revealing home truths, and even working in a musical interlude.

Carousel

A lovely piece of work by the Wiltshire wit Ivo Graham. Funny, sad, and the perfect accompaniment for any fan of his stand-up hours who wondered what on earth happened between shows.

Jacob Hawley: Space

Jacob Hawley oscillates between the top volume barking of a Oxford Street perfume seller and the considered whisper of a frightened, loving young dad. We hang on every word in this powerful show offering rare balance on the subject of gender conformity and LGBTQ acceptance.

Jake Baker: Rule Breaker!

A thoroughly enjoyable hour of relatable comedy from young Dorset lad Jake Baker. Don't let his laid-back, cuddly demeanour fool you - he mixes observational material with social and political jokes, and he might just change your life...

Jessie Cave: An Ecstatic Display

Amongst plenty of 'full-disclosure' comedians at the Fringe, for our money, Jessie Cave is the finest. That's largely down to the endlessly intriguing way her mind works, and the repercussions there-of. Expect shadow puppetry and a few interactions between her and her partner acted out, but amongst all this variety, the quality remains consistent.

Jin Hao Li: Swimming in a Submarine

Jin Hao Li's exquisitely crafted hour has all the hallmarks of a brilliant show - great jokes, running gags and callbacks aplenty - but it is his disarming delivery that deserves the biggest accolade, with perfectly timed pauses and punchlines that come out of left field.

Jo Caulfield: Pearls Before Swine

Jo Caulfield has a gloriously venomous tongue. This is yet another corker of a show.

Joe Kent-Walters is Frankie Monroe: LIVE!!!

BBC New Comedy Award winner Joe Kent-Walters has some phenomenal moments in his show. We're some distance from straightforward stand-up here: this show is weird in the most brilliant possible way.

Joe Thomas: Rule Breaker

Inbetweeners star Joe Thomas is brilliantly self deprecatory as he examines his life since the sitcom. With stories ribald and reflective, Thomas gets big laughs from his fast paced, energetic delivery.

John Meagher: Big Year

John Meagher does not waste a minute of this densely packed debut hour of personal story telling. There is fascinating insight into growing up in Northern Ireland during The Troubles and it's lasting impact into adulthood punctuated by big laughs.

Josh Glanc: Family Man

A real step-up this year for Josh Glanc, largely performing silly solo-sketch comedy with a healthy dose of audience interaction. A joyful treat.

Katie Norris: Farm Fatale

Katie Norris's debut solo show is a bravura display of comic performance. She has complete command of her onstage persona, imbuing tales of cats and dates with a ferocious intensity. The show also gives Norris a chance to showcase her impressive vocal range in a selection of songs.

Kemah Bob: Miss Fortunate

A blast of personality that is sexy, self aggrandising and manic. Kemah Bob's clubby opening twenty gets massive laughs and then the second half shifts elegantly into top storytelling. A star-making Fringe debut.

Ketch Sketch

Ketch Sketch is a masterclass in physical comedy. Demonstrating skills involving mime, props and audience interaction, and with his "dog" Max in tow, the show can be enjoyed by the elderly and gurgling toddler alike.

Kevin James Doyle: After Endgame

What begins as Kevin James Doyle giving a comedic chess masterclass then gives way to one of the wildest stories at this year's Fringe, as he's whisked off to chess-hustle with billionaires. Bonkers.

Kiri Pritchard-McLean: Peacock

Kiri Pritchard-McLean's new touring show Peacock is a masterclass of virtue signalling without skipping over the big around the room laughs. The final 10 minutes might just be the most gripping storytelling cliffhanger ever committed on stage at the Fringe.

Last Laugh. Image shows left to right: Bob Golding, Damian Williams, Simon Cartwright

The Last Laugh

Paul Hendy's script is a wonderfully funny ode to comedians past. Bob Golding, Damian Williams and Simon Cartwright are absolutely uncanny as Eric Morecambe, Tommy Cooper and Bob Monkhouse. Crammed with jokes, The Last Laugh is a joyous celebration of comedy.

Lauren Pattison: Big Girl Pants

Lauren Pattison seems born to be onstage at a comedy club. A ribald raconteur, she had the audience roaring with laughter, a brilliant comic at the top of her game.

Lewis Garnham: Choosing the Wrong Story to Tell

Lewis Garnham is affable storyteller and charming presence on stage. His time as a teaching assistant provides a rich source of material but he can seemingly get into an awkward situation anywhere. An accomplished Edinburgh debut full of nostalgic pop culture references.

Louise Leigh: Distracted

Louise Leigh gets plenty of comic mileage out of being middle-aged. Routines on the menopause, open water swimming and dog walking are amongst the highlights.

Luke Chilton: Netflix and Chilton

Luke Chilton's punny show title belies a much more complex tale than expected and is all the better for it. One of the sleeper hits of this festival and a name who deserves a rise in prominence.

Luke Rollason, Luke Rollason, Let Down Your Hair

Lovely lunacy from the increasingly envelope-troubling Luke Rollason, channelling Rapunzel and a bunch of other fairy tales with the aid of all the toilet rolls in Edinburgh.

Mark Nelson: Getting Better Man

Mark Nelson is very much The Daddy of the current Scottish comedy scene. An assemblage of his finest circuit / social media / radio appearance topical gags from the past six months.

Mark Simmons - More Jokes

Do you like jokes? Mark Simmons doesn't just have over an hour's worth of bangers to fall back on but he also gives the audience a glimpse into the mechanics behind what makes an award winning one-liner. From tweaks in delivery to changing the set-up entirely, the one thing that will never need an overhaul is his playful, unassuming persona.

Mark Thomas: Gaffa Tapes

The hard left lay preacher's son has lost none of his sermonising magic. Comedy perfection.

Matt Forde: The End of an Era Tour

Expect the usual well-observed political comedy and impressions from Matt Forde - his Boris Johnson effort remains one for the ages, alongside (new this year!) deft tales from overcoming his 2023 cancer diagnosis.

Mel McGlensey is Motorboat

Most character comics limit their characters to humans. Mel McGlensey's sexually-charged interactive show sees her performing as an actual motorboat. Prepare to experience a very exciting storm.

Mel & Sam: High Pony

Non-stop musical sketches from a talented and fun duo. It's high energy, it's high concept, high art, it's high pony.

Melanie Bracewell: Attack of the Melanie Bracewell

That Melanie Bracewell manages to make a tale of stolen AirPods feel as high stakes as a Hollywood film is testament to the quality of her writing. The gags come thick and fast, all building towards an immensely satisfying payoff.

Michael Odewale: Of Mike and Men

Michael Odewale is a human born to be a stand-up. The joy is in the laidback looseness. A slacker who doesn't need to maintain status is about as cool as comedy gets.

Michelle Brasier: Legacy

Following up her superb 2023 show Reform, Michelle Brasier takes us on another wild ride through the choices we make and their effect on our lives. Great storytelling, songs, and structure. Michelle's rise continues.

Mike Rice: Nasty Character

A self-proclaimed nasty character, but also an extremely funny man with gags that will make you roar with laughter. Ireland has a wealth of stand-up talent, but Mike Rice must be one of the best right now.

Olga Koch Comes From Money

Olga Koch needs to be recognised as one of the best we have. Every year she brings a brilliant show to this festival, just a no-fat flex through a consistent hour of big laughs.

Ollie Horn: Comedy for Toxic People (and Their Friends)

Ollie Horn has turned to character comedy this year - playing a toxic man looking for a wife. It's a thrilling show, as he skilfully sails close to the wind in his interactions with the audience. It's not all crowdwork though - there's great scripted routines too.

Paul McDaniel - Butter Beans

The deadpan delight Paul McDaniel stretches his wings with this ambitious AV heavy show. He explores some pretty big chew while spoofing online interactions but keeps getting distracted checking in on those butterbeans. An evolution.

Paulina Lenoir: Puella Eterna

Paulina Lenoir has so many talents and every trick in the book is gorgeously delivered. Her Puella Eterna show is the perfect showcase for a physicality that shudders from judders to gracefulness. If you know someone looking looking for a true Fringe experience you couldn't hope for anything better than suggest they enter this slinky cabaret of the body.

Share this page

Subscribe to our newsletters