2022 Edinburgh Fringe

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Recommended 2022 shows

The BCG team sees hundreds of shows during each Fringe. Here is a list of our favourites from 2022, in alphabetical order.

Adele Cliff: In the Dark

A consummate jokesmith, Cliff's new show is packed with gags and punchlines that catch you off guard. Witty wordplay with a penchant for silliness, Cliff's upbeat outlook on life makes her show the perfect mid afternoon treat.

Alfie Brown: Sensitive Man

The always challenging, always intelligent Alfie Brown's latest show promises footnotes, an interlude and a post-mortem. Don't worry though as this tour-de-force is his loosest, most self interrogative hour yet.

Ania Magliano: Absolutely No Worries If Not

In her debut show, Ania Magliano has such an easy charm onstage and the punchlines come thick and fast. The audience were roaring with laughter.

Aurie Styla: Green

In a bumper year for new acts, Aurie Styla is one of a number of stand outs. Smart, slick, talented and funny.

Britney: Friends and Nothing More

Fresh from their excellent BBC pilot, Britney use sketch to examine the intense friendship the two have had since school. It's well written and very funny, particularly when they look back at some cringeworthy teenage moments.

Business Casual: FERAL

The talented high octane American sketch trio return after an Edinburgh debut in 2019. Part of the Stamptown stable of acts who are enjoying a strong Fringe this year.

Caitlin Cook: The Writing on the Stall

Is free expression without consequence the purest form of art? If so, can we find meaning to our lives in toilet wall grafitti? Caitlin Cook's funny and sweet musical explores these questions.

Catherine Bohart: This Isn't For You

Catherine Bohart is masterful in this brilliantly written hour on the break up of a long-term relationship, and she's just as funny off-script interacting with the audience.

Celya AB: Swimming

In her debut show, Celya AB won over the room within seconds of stepping out onstage, her outsider's insight into British life punctuated with razor sharp punchlines.

Chloe Petts: Transience

Everyone is having a lot of fun here: plenty of jokes dissect identity politics but there's always a super punchline at the end. Chloe Petts is at ease and fully in control of proceedings at all times.

Christopher Bliss: Captain Words Eye

The brochure blurb for this show labels Christopher Bliss as Shropshire's worst writer. That must have been a mistake, as the writing Rob Carter's character showcases in his latest hour is very entertaining indeed.

Ciarán Dowd: King Rodolfo

This story is a late night spectacular, full of top-notch comic set pieces.

Colin Hoult: The Death of Anna Mann

Colin Hoult has taken the consistently amazing Anna Mann character and set her within truly satisfying theatrical narrative. Huge amounts of this show has the audience howling with laughter.

Connor Burns: Live, Laugh, Loathe

Very strong debut hour from Connor Burns with bold material and lots of big laughs.

Crizards: Cowboys

Tales from the not-so-wild-west. The mid-octane musical duo's Fringe debut is an unpretentious bean-swigging joy, with lots of horseplay, occasional gunplay but no trigger warnings

Crybabies: Bagbeard

Crybabies have produced another tightly written, daft caper. With Max & Ivan not around town so much these days, Crybabies feel like the natural heirs to their crown.

Dan Tiernan: Cherub

The Royal Marines may not want him, but their loss is comedy's gain. Check out this 40 minute work-in-progress show to witness a future stand-up star honing some very funny routines.

Danielle Walker: Nostalgia

Danielle Walker takes her family albums and home videos and weaves magic from them. The greatest comedy comes from truth and Danielle finds plenty of it in this show, fresh from success at home in Australia.

Dave Johns: A Comic's Tale

Dave Johns works the audience beautifully, and there are several stand out anecdotes. But it was Johns' skill in creating comedy out of the audience and the room that really impressed.

David Kay: Garden Office Legend

One of the Proclaimers on Prozac? Roaring onto the stage at a maximum of 1mph will be the UK's premier - or only - purveyor of often scone based comedy for another meander through his mind.

Delightful Sausage: Nowt but Sea. Image shows from L to R: Amy Gledhill, Chris Cantrill

The Delightful Sausage: Nowt but Sea

The Delightful Sausage are on their fourth consecutive excellent Fringe show and - as usual - it's a very silly, occasionally dark bit of storytelling. They're justifiably on the brink of stardom.

Edy Hurst's Comedy Version of Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of HG Wells' Literary Version (Via Orson Welles' Radio Version and Steven Spielberg's Film Version) of the War of the Worlds

What have we just seen!? Absolutely non-stop bonkers. Hurst rockets through intergalactic warfare, remakes and rock opera with a ramshackle show that will pleasure the uninitiated comedy fan and the sci-fi invasions nerd equally.

Eh Up, Me Old Flowers!

Tony Marshall captures the very essence of Charlie Williams - the cheeky grin, pitch perfect comic timing and of course the famous laugh - in a sharp script that combines classic gags with a wider examination of Williams and his place in the history of stand up comedy.

Elf Lyons: Raven

Elf Lyons takes the audience on a journey into the macabre as she tells a tale inspired by the works of Stephen King. But, fear not, although horror is the theme, the show is infused with Lyons' infectious enthusiasm as she commits fully to clowning onstage, building to a crescendo of comic chaos.

Eme Essien: Flat Shoes In The Club

Anything but an hour-long party, this is a surprisingly meditative look at a young woman just trying to let her hair down despite the hassles and expectations of everyday life, beautifully played by Eme Essien.

Emily Wilson: Fixed

An incredible cautionary tale about teen dreams and the nefarious machinations of the TV talent-show industry - as the title suggests, the shows don't come out of it. Thankfully Emily Wilson eventually does.

Enter the Vortex

The Awkward Silence present a fast-paced hour of sketches, with each scene neatly linking into the next - there's no pauses at all. There's some great writing and performance skills showcased here.

Eryn Tett Finds Her Audience

Eryn Tett divides a room and appears to be enjoying it. With a comic persona that remains distanced from proceedings, the off-kilter observations and surreal ideas are often brilliant.

Evening Without Kate Bush. Sarah-Louise Young

An Evening Without Kate Bush

Sarah Louise Young's one woman tribute to Kate Bush is a joyous celebration, not just of the Wuthering Heights singer, but of fandom itself. Fusing cabaret and karaoke, Young's enthusiasm and kindness shines through and, by the end, the audience were thunderous in their appreciation not just for Kate Bush, but Young's tour de force performance.

Everything That's Me Is Falling Apart

This is a man with true blue storytelling prowess. David Callaghan is a whimsical Raymond Carver or a twee Alan Bennett. His tales of missed connections and lost chance are minor miracles.

Fan/Girl

A playful, surprising and very timely show about Bryony Byrne's childhood flair for football, and why she - and many others - stopped.

Feeling Afraid as If Something Terrible Is Going to Happen

Samuel Barnett is fantastic as a neurotic stand-up hell bent on sabotaging his own happiness. The monologue is packed with laughs, delivered at pace with a brilliant climax.

Garrett Millerick: Just Trying to Help

A lot of things are annoying Garrett Millerick right now, and that is good news for the Fringe: these irritations become ignition for some great stand-up routines.

Glenn Moore: Will You Still Need Me, Will You Still Feed Me, Glenn I'm Sixty Moore

59 minutes of non-stop great jokes. His posters were already pretty crowded by that brilliant title, but - if there's any justice in this world - there'll be no room left by the time all the five star stickers have been added.

Hannah Fairweather: Just a Normal Girl Who Enjoys Revenge

This year's Fringe is a golden time for talented young comedians bringing their first full hour to Edinburgh. Hannah Fairweather's comfortable and unassuming style eases the audience into her routines.

Harriet Kemsley: Honeysuckle Island

A super funny show from one of the uniquest voices of the stand-up circuit. She is still as unguarded and outwardly messy as ever yet between all the confessions and wackiness she slips in some weighty themes by stealth. Every year Harriet Kemsley takes on big difficult topics with a deep focus, this year its is motherhood and the beauty industry, but you'll be laughing too much to realise you are also being educated by a very smart cookie.

Jack Docherty: Nothing But

From the first few words on the Fringe-postered stage you can tell that this tale of Edinburghs past and present will be an absolute treat - painfully honest, with some of the biggest belly laughs this year. A lovingly crafted show.

Jacob Hawley: Bump

He's playing but you can feel the audience draw an audible sharp breath when working class good kid Jacob Hawley declares he is becoming more right wing as he ages. It is a risky gambit to open a show at an arts festival with. The adept and increasingly fast paced comedian somehow manages to take in fatherhood, foot fetishism, vigilante justice, mental health and the hit movie Grease in this impeccable hour of man-and-mic stand-up.

Jake Farrell: Sky

Jake Farrell's Sky is a debut show of note. The Stevenage working class boy has a present writing style - this mixture of biography and flights of fantasy would land in both arts centres and rooms above a pub.

Jazz Emu: You Shouldn't Have

Wow. Archie Henderson's character is already an online musical star, but this live show hints he could become a superstar in the future. So much work has gone into making this a brilliant hour. It's worth emphasising: if you're already a fan, this isn't a showcase of the existing videos - it's fresh material.

Jessica Fostekew: Wench

If you buy a ticket for Jessica Fostekew, one thing you can be guaranteed is more enthusiasm than a single human body should ever scientifically or legally be allowed to possess. Big belly laughs follow universal "around the room"ers with this flawlessly written, flawlessly delivered show about her new found queerness. Expect Wordle, unlikely beer swilling and judgmental cats in this epic follow-up to Hench.

John Hastings: Do You Have Any Ointment My John Hastings

Despite the subject matter of his recent traumas (divorce, a bike accident and the death a close friend), this fantastic show packs in lots of big laughs.

Josh Glanc: Vrooom Vrooom

The best cold-open to a show at this year's Fringe? Could be - Josh Glanc and his trusty tech present an all-singing, all-dancing extravaganza - and one mid-show song that may even bring an unlikely tear to the eye.

Josh Jones: Waste of Space

A smart and witty debut hour from Manchester based Josh Jones. A rising star of the UK comedy circuit with big potential for the future.

Josh Pugh: Sausage, Egg, Josh Pugh, Chips and Beans

The audience adores Josh Pugh and it's easy to see why. His lightly-surreal jokes are consistently superb, and never let up throughout a brilliant hour. He's destined for the big leagues.

Julia Masli: CHOOSH!

For a true Fringe experience you need to take some risks and try something different. Julia Masli has a mischievous glint in her eye and this unique clowning show will keep you on your toes.

Just These Please: Honestly No Pressure Either Way

Not a single dud sketch. We can't emphasise that point enough... this is an hour of non-stop great sketches, performed slickly by four skilled and very likeable performers.

Kate Barron: Losing Myself

Kate Barron talks about losing a dramatic amount of weight in this interesting, filthy, funny and emotional show. The jokes stop in the final five minutes, but it is this sensitive ending that will remain in our thoughts. A story you need to hear.

Lara Ricote: GRL/LATNX/DEF

A very exciting newcomer: confident, supremely likable and naturally funny.

Laura Davis: If This Is It

The Aussie comic is on blistering form here, kicking off locked down in New Zealand then shifting gears to get furious about what on earth is going on everywhere else.

Lauren Pattison: It Is What It Is

Lauren Pattison had the room rocking with laughter, as she relayed her story of the last few years. Delivering pithy punchlines with pitch perfect comic timing, her new show is an absolute triumph.

Leo Reich: Literally Who Cares?!

BCG loved Leo Reich's two person sketch show Manhunt in 2018 - now he's back, solo, with an autobiographical hour that gently mocks Gen Z issues. His style is light-hearted, knowing self-obsession and this well-structured show is peppered with songs that showcase a great singing voice.

Lily Phillips: Smut

An incredibly meaty show as taut as three club sets lined up in a row. Lily Phillips plays to her demographic with a laidback charisma. The content is unashamedly "adults only" and Phillips finds new slants on each of her gynaecological topics.

Liz Kingsman: One-Woman Show

Given the number of five star reviews this spoof of shows like Fleabag has already amassed, it probably doesn't need any more recommendations - but here's another anyway. A great script, executed brilliantly.

Luke Rollason: Bowerbird

The best way to start your Fringe day... in fact, one of best shows at the festival full stop. Enter visual comedian Luke Rollason's unique world and give your eyeballs a real treat.

Maisie Adam: Buzzed

A great, engaging storyteller and this is her best hour yet.

Mark Simmons: Quip Off the Mark

Every one is a winner, baby. Mark Simmons does his greatest hits. Don't let his gentle, innocent style fool you though as every single wordplay hits the bullseye.

Mark Thomas: Black and White

Mark Thomas returns to pure man-and-mic stand-up comedy with his trademark evangelical zeal. Down to earth, angry and playful. From the picket lines of today to the Music Halls of old, Black And White absolutely rocks.

Mark Watson: This Can't Be It

Typically excellent from Mark Watson, in a polished show that's also available on Amazon Prime - although the diversions when you see him live are half the fun.

Mat Ewins: Danger Money

If you're after late night fun, Mat Ewins makes his own hilarious, darkly funny videos. He's frequently outstanding and this is some of his best work.

Melissa Stephens: HOT DOGS & TEARS

An often extraordinary account of Melissa Stephens' upbringing in the American South. Be warned though, the poster is fun but the stories can get pretty dark.

Mind Mangler: Member of the Tragic Circle

From the second he stepped onto the stage, Henry Lewis had the audience in the palm of his hand. His sharp improv skills ensured that the laughter in the crowd built almost to the point of mass hysteria. Crammed with gags, slapstick and Mischief's well honed brand of chaos, Mind Mangler is an absolute triumph.

Looking For Me Friend: The Music of Victoria Wood

This is a joyous celebration of the great Victoria Wood, and Paulus is the perfect host. Warm, witty and with an adoration of Wood's work that shines through every moment, his rapport with pianist Michael Roulston was lovely to see. Wood's songs, as you would expect, are exceptional and sung with real feeling.

Myra DuBois' A Problem Shared

Drag star Myra DuBois's agony aunt format is oven ready to become a television show - and fingers crossed a channel does commission it, as then the whole nation could revel in the non-stop laughs this host delivers. Brilliant from start to finish - you must go and let her insult you.

Nick Helm: What Have We Become?

With a lighting state of a Pepsi Max Cherry logo, Nick Helm emerges from a fog of neon dry ice and covid to take us on his latest journey. Blustering, sweet, committed and cracking, the expected rollercoaster of emotions, that only Helm can conjure, occur.

Olga Koch: Just Friends

At her fourth Edinburgh Fringe, Olga Koch is pure fire, zero pretension. Most importantly frothy, carefree filth. Just Friends is a must see.

Paul Sinha: One Sinha Lifetime

You can always trust Paul Sinha to deliver a great show but this one is possibly his best to date. Bafflingly unable to secure a book deal, he instead presents his autobiography here through anecdotes and songs, the occasional caustic jibe and lots of big laughs.

Pierre Novellie: Why Can't I Just Enjoy Things?

Luxurious velvety stand-up from a comedian who it is a pleasure to be in the company of. There's some lovely turns of phrase delivered across this well thought-out hour... and some salty guts.

Rachel Fairburn: Can I Be Awful?

This is a high energy hour largely on class, with her trademark caustic observations and lots of big laughs.

Rachel Jackson - Almost Famous

Rachel Jackson regales the audience with tales of fame never quite achieved, with some especially funny anecdotes about life as a jobbing actor. Tying into a wider discussion about mental health, Jackson is wonderful company for the start of a Fringe day.

Rhys Nicholson - Rhys! Rhys! Rhys!

A brilliantly funny hour that won Most Outstanding Show at the Melbourne Comedy Festival earlier this year. It's packed with jokes on gender identity, sexuality, eavesdropping and divorce.

Richard Brown: Horror Show

Underground Scottish comedian Richard Brown brings another multimedia show full of Jordan Peele worthy twists and turns. The man on stage is deceptively softly spoken, clearly well read and considered. And he might just be the most dangerous man on the Fringe.

Rob Auton: The Crowd Show

If not hitting the heights of his previous couple of Fringe hours, Rob Auton proves himself ever-reliable here, with typically thoughtful (and funny!) musings on the nature of people coming together.

Sam Nicoresti: Cancel Anti Wokeflake Snow Culture

An admirably sensible discussion about gender wrapped up in some lovely Nicoresti lunacy, including surely the biggest face you'll see at this year's Fringe.

Sean McLoughlin: So Be It

One of the most underrated comedians on the circuit delivers his masterpiece. Surely if he keep producing hours like this then Sean McLoughlin has to tip over and become a household name. This is a dense hour, full of fertile ideas, self referential malaise, surprising physicality and the finest routine about a horse ever to grace a microphone.

Seann Walsh: Is Dead. Happy Now?

A frank and very funny hour about the fallout from his time on Strictly, from PTSD and suicidal thoughts to therapy, quitting alcohol, feeling happy again and reconciling with his heroin-addicted father. The hour has lots of big laughs and some bang on impressions.

Shelf: Hair

A queer double act riffing on, amongst other things, how many people mistake them for young boys. Destined for the big leagues.

Simon David: White Gay

Simon David is a talented and flamboyant musical comedian who never resorts to parody.
He proves himself in this hour to be a performer with a surprising amount of strings to his bow. A natural comedy all-rounder.

Simon Munnery: Trials and Tribulations

Unique Fringe legend. The only man who would choose to interpret review comment 'the closest comedy gets to art' via a Venn diagram.

Soup Group!

A little lunchtime hidden treasure, this almost-silent duo do joyously silly things with unlikely props, possibly just found in the Carnivore's kitchen.

Tarot: Cautionary Tales

If you are visiting Edinburgh in August, it's essential to see a sketch group. And if you're ever wondering which sketch group to see, you should choose Tarot. A consistently superb Fringe act, their shows are chaotic with amazing punchlines.

Ted Hill: All the Presidents Man

It's worth emphasising you don't have to care about, or know anything about, US politics to enjoy this PowerPoint-based show from Ted Hill. The likeable performer has found plenty of history to laugh about as he zips through his well-constructed and researched slides.

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