Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Fringe debutant Harvey Cobb comes to the festival with a European circus pedigree, having fled his Northern English hometown to study the craft in Rotterdam. 

He spent the last few years fruitlessly pursuing European citizenship, and now concedes to play his first ever shows in his home nations. Cobb performs ‘circus comedy,’ which mixes a modern clowning sensibility with more traditional circus skills like juggling. He performs on stage surrounded by pink wellington boots, many of which are eventually revealed to contain useful props.

With his opening statement of intent, ‘I’ve prepared something artistic and beautiful,’ he establishes his character essentially as a frustrated circus performer aiming for high art, and then spends an indulgently long stretch dancing slowly and expressionistically with a wellie on his head. If you can’t get behind that as a concept for a segment, this is not going to be the show for you, whether or not Cobb is doing it with his tongue in his cheek.

For those who persist, there’s something inexplicably relaxing about it. Cobb’s skills as a circus performer are not used in a particularly overbearing or flashy way, but he’ll often throw in a little trick of balance or something into his movement, and it gives you a mild serotonin buzz for a second.

Around about the halfway mark there is, dare I say it, some quite interesting juggling. It’s not death-defying, ambitious or particularly fast, but he juggles his wellies using little nudges of his knees, shoulders and feet, in a way that pleases the eye. I found myself smiling broadly somewhat despite myself.

Comedically, it’s unfortunately a little weak. Cobb’s eager, underdeveloped persona would work well in an all-ages setting; as a show for adults it feels patronising and not quite funny enough. You want to root for him, but it’s easy to see that some people are going to find him a little precious.

The second half runs low on steam. While it’s never a pain to sit through, his loop pedal ‘sock song’ and his improvised rap are both pretty inert. His use of a sock puppet as a second character to riff off is ill-advised, especially when it comes to an extended, Richard Herring style disquisition on how the show is going – he says it’s his favourite part of the hour, which if that’s the case he might want to sharpen it up so it can be our favourite part too. It bears all the hallmarks of a section that was once much longer until Cobb realised what his audience is now realising in real time: he should do more juggling.

Published: 6 Aug 2026