comedy

The Edinburgh Fringe Show 2023 – Benjamin Alborough (Absolute Monopoly!)

August 21, 2023

Season 19

Episode 16

00:18:11

The Fringe is not static. Neither are board games, and the classic Monopoly is a perfect example. It’s not a great game, it’s poorly designed, and it ruins friendships and families. Benjamin Alborough not only has the arguments on the dangers of Monopoly, but is also going to reinvent the game with the help of the audience.

Absolute Monopoly is an interactive yet rather chaotic gameshow; from going through the rules through becoming the board to play the game, to deciding the winner. If there’s going to be one.

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The Edinburgh Fringe Show 2023 – Emily Walsh (Dad Girl)

August 15, 2023

Season 19

Episode 12

0:21:06

Emily Walsh brings her show ‘Dad Girl’ from the clubs of New York to the Grassmarket of Edinburgh. Emily does not know if she wants kids, but she would like to be a dad. It’s a show about making decisions in a world where others believe the decision has already been made for you by society.

The Fringe offers something that many comics, including Emily, rarely get. A chance to spend an hour with an audience. That allows more complex topics to be addressed, to go into much greater depth, but also a chance to look at a wider picture. It’s an offer that Emily luxuriates in.

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The Edinburgh Fringe Show 2023 – Sikisa (Hear Me Out)

August 14, 2023

Season 19

Episode 11

00:20:45

Sikisa’s Hear Me Out is her second hour-long show at the Edinburgh Fringe. During last year’s debut, after reading a passage of text an audience member wondered if she might be dyslexic. To cut a long story short (and not give away any spoilers), Sikisa was diagnosed, and this year’s show is about that journey.

Sikisa and I talk about her performance and how it rarely reflects how she is away from the comedy stage, the importance of music, and how her 2023 show can be summed up in a single question… “why is it so hard to say the right things?”

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The Edinburgh Fringe Show 2023 – Patrick Susmilch (Texts from My Dead Friends)

August 10, 2023

Season 19

Episode 9

00:25:10

Patrick Susmilch has spent time looking back over all the messages, memes, and moments with his friends on social media. Many are still around, yet some have died. Through those older messages, he feels connected to those who have passed on.

Through the medium of PowerPoint presentations, Susmilch introduces us to his dead friends, their impact on his life, the bursts of joy and laughter as well as darker moments. Think Twilight Zone and Black Mirror mixed with Who’s Line Is It Anyway.

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The Edinburgh Fringe Archives – Ismo Leikola (Observing The Obvious, 2015)

December 8, 2022

Season 18

Episode 14

00:11:58

This week I want to head back to 2015. That year the show was broadcast live on Leith FM community radio, as well as being a podcast, with a number of guest hosts joining me – so you’ll hear the voice of WUSB New York’s Emma Backfish – as well as our comedy just… Finland’s Ismo Leikola.

For countless decades, the ‘observational comedy’ routine has been a staple of stand ups… yes we have all seen just how many Cafe Nero’s there are, and how many stamps you need to get a free coffee, but Ismo brought a new angle on this to the Fringe… doing it in his second language.

A laid back Finnish style put me in mind of the razer sharp gentleness of Arnold Brown. Ismo’s skills wasn’t the choice of well-worn topics, is was putting a twist on the resulting points that lifted this show up.

So we return to the Gilded Balloon, we return to the time honoured comedian watching our everyday life, we return to a rather chaotic studio, to Observing the Obvious.

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The Edinburgh Fringe Archive – Celia Pacquola (Let Me Know How It All Works Out, 2014)

November 10, 2022

Season 18

Episode 11

00:13:18

2014 saw Australian comic Celia Pacquola return to Edinburgh for her fourth Fringe Show. ‘Let Me Know How It All Worked Out’ looked at the world of psychics and their promise of foretelling the future; specifically one who said she would never have children.

(Spoiler… congratulations are in order, Celia and her partner had their first child earlier this year,).

Since the Fringe Pacquola moved frequently between the UK Australia, with various apeprances, scriptwriting, and starring appearances in a wide range of shows on the circuit, including radio work on Fox FM and Radio 4, TV work on Would I Lie To You, Live At The Apollo, and Have You Been Paying Attention, and staring in Rosehaven, and The Breaker Uppers.

All that was ahead of her in 2014 when she joined me in the podcast studio to talk about her show. It wasn’t the first time she’d been on the Fringe podcast, so the whole ‘tell us about your show’ quickly descended into discussions of synchronised diving, Tom Daley, Pro/Am contest, and a love of Converse trainers.

This week’s trip is back to the Gilded Ballon, back to a time when the future we live in now was quite definitely not going to happen, as Celia Pacquola asks the audience to Let Me Know How It All Works Out,

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The Edinburgh Fringe Show 2022 – Tom GK (How To Record The Greatest Album Of All Time)

August 11, 2022

Season 17

Episode 10

00:15:16

Can you convince an audience that you can record not just an album, but the greatest album of all time? That’s the challenge that Tom GK has set himself at the Fringe this year. Ewan sits down with Tom GK to talk about the power of song, his Wikipedia-fuelled years as a music critic, and coping with hearing loss.

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The Edinburgh Fringe Show 2022 – Luca Cupani (Happy Orphan)

August 9, 2022

Season 17

Episode 8

00:15:21

Italian comic Luca Cupani has always been a popular face at the Free Fringe, but in 2022 he has a one-hour tickted show called Happy Orphan, and the adventure he took when the rent ran out for mother’s grave He joins Ewan to talk about his show, his first experiences of open-mic comedy, why he looks younger now than he did ten years ago, and why Italian paperwork indirectly led to his Fringe 2022 show.

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The Edinburgh Fringe Show 2022 – Dave Johns (A Comic’s Tale)

August 2, 2022

Season 17

Episode 4

00:22:04

Dave Johns started out in the comedy clubs of the UK almost thirty years ago, and his career includes appearances in award-winning films, TV panel shows, arthouse projects, and the occasional appearance on the West End stage. For his return to the Fringe, he’s bringing it all back down to a man, a microphone, and “some funny stuff”. Ewan sits down with Dave to find out more about his career, his approach to life, a mysterious bunny rabbit costume… and a chiming clock.

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