Tim Harding's comedy diary

Reviewer Tim Harding gives a rundown of the comedy he's been watching in London - in the last two weeks.

In one of the more disappointing discoveries of the year, I only found out a couple of weeks ago that Pax Lowey’s Actually Rather Good Comedy Festival – in my opinion, clearly London’s best comedy festival – is unfortunately having to take a year off. A terrible shame for me as a punter, but also as a journalist, as ARG is usually where I see the majority of the year’s best work-in-progress shows before we go to the Fringe.

Stepping into this void, but with their own distinct identity, is the new PBH Free Fringe Weekender in Southwark, an extension of the enterprise that runs the majority of the Edinburgh Fringe’s free shows and provides an alternative model for performers and punters battered by the Fringe’s exorbitant costs.

The festival took place in a funny little venue under Southwark Bridge, at the base of a huge office tower, which nevertheless provided a credible bar, courtyard and three performance spaces in a sort of mini-rendition of the Pleasance. They also managed to secure some reasonably big names including Rob Auton, Mark Thomas and the legendary Young Man Dressed As A Gorilla Dressed As An Old Man, all employing the PBH format of a free show followed by an opportunity to pay what you want.

Braving the heatwave, I dropped by on all three days, sheltering from the malevolent orb in the venue’s dank tunnels. Here are some highlights:

Shalaka Kurup’s debut show Get A Grip is shaping up nicely. A pop culture classicist obsessed with GoT, LoTR and CD (Charles Dickens), Kurup’s story is a tale of growing up hungry for therapy, attention and the feeling of being special, but being thwarted by her stable and loving family life. She needs to talk more about her PhD in trains because that is going to go over well with the Edinburgh crowd, let me tell you.

Mark Silcox, perhaps my favourite stage presence in all the world, was previewing his new show The Gold Trader, a cultural history of gold delivered on PowerPoint, featuring live gold trading with a £500 budget and occasional video interjections of things he’s found on the internet. 

I found out how gold chains are made, and at one point he made us all watch a lengthy clip from a TV show where he played a vicar. If you’ve been put off in the past by the ‘anti-comedy’ label, it might be time to come back into Dr Silcox’s tent. It’s still not comedy as we know it, but with each new show he’s getting increasingly undeniable. 

I’m also enjoying how each outing features increasingly incongruous shiny-floor costuming. This time he’s wearing a suit of gold sequins with a little gold hat and tie. Worth the price of admission.

I’ve been dying to see Jain Edwards for ages, and she did not disappoint. This stalwart of the northern scene that birthed The Delightful Sausage, Sean Morley, Sam O’Leary etc. only seldomly performs in London, but was a big presence in my life during the pandemic when I became addicted to her group’s bizarre online shows like Escape The North. 

Her new show She-Devil is tremendously enjoyable. Dressed in forest green, apple-cheeked and beatifically smiling like Kenneth Parcell in 30 Rock, she delivers a deeply ironic set of stories from a naïf trapped in our modern world of Babestation, chemtrails and sleep paralysis demons. I was really impressed with the density of the jokes here.

Rajiv Karia’s Man Alive is a typically smooth and pleasurable show about aspiring to be a ‘brown uncle,’ essentially an extended metaphor about passing gracefully from young manhood into middle age. A stress-free and blithe comedian, Karia always slips down easily, with strong writing and a warm, sensible stage presence that inspires confidence.

Easily my favourite discovery of the festival was the hilarious Catriona Dowden, former winner of the Chortle Student Comedy Award, returning to the Fringe this year with her sophomore show Dance Like Everyone’s Dancing. 

Opening with a story about how she once ‘fainted during a church service because of the vibrations from the pipe organ’, Dowden presents herself as demure and minimal, but quietly confident. This is a ‘feelgood show about apocalyptic dread’ that is again deeply rooted in medievalism (her personal area of expertise) and features extended roleplay as an anchoress. A brilliant and deeply idiosyncratic comedian with a unique persona, she’s everything I’m looking for in a new comedian.

Finally, Sam Nicoresti, who I just think is going to have an absolutely massive Fringe. Their last show Wokeflake was bewilderingly high-concept, mixing satirical character comedy with frog-based mysticism in an exploration of their own transition. 

Here, with a new show Baby Doomer, Nicoresti has divested themself of conceptual frills and has put together a smash hit parade of zingy, elevated stand-up about trans-ness that showcases their truly formidable writing. After the density of Wokeflake, this is such a breath of fresh air, and concurrently you can feel a real joy in their performance for the first time. They know they've got a killer show and they seem perfectly positioned to ride that wave.

The programmers have done a great job with this festival, balancing the anarchic, experimental spirit of the Free Fringe with bigger names and more traditional stand-up. The turnout was good, but I’m hoping they’ll be swamped next year – I know I’ll be there.

Published: 7 Jul 2025