Tim Harding reveals his comedy tips

In a special edition of his diary, reviewer Tim Harding gives a personal rundown of the best comedy he's most looking forward to seeing at the Edinburgh Fringe next month.

Those comics patiently waiting decades for the Fringe to collapse under its own weight and the greed of Edinburgh’s landlords must be heartened by the relentless heatwaves. If it carries on like this, there’s not going to be a single inhabitable venue in the city.

But on the off chance that you make it through July and up to Edinburgh, I’ve compiled my traditional list of festival recommendations. It’s a mix of surefire hits, stuff that’s a little more off-the-beaten track, things I’ve seen and know are good, and things I just have a good feeling about for one reason or another. My record is not unimpeachable but I do okay; three of the last four Edinburgh award winners were mentioned in previous iterations of this list.

Abby Govindan: Pushing 30

A jet-setting international tourer with charisma to burn, Abby Govindan has already been performing for ten years around New York and the States, and now brings her first show to the Fringe, all about arranged marriage, big tech, and staring 30 in the face – a big deal for someone who made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list this year.

Recommended if you like: Sophie Duker, Olga Koch
Abby Govindan: Pushing 30 is at Pleasance Courtyard: Baby Grand at 21.35

Alex Franklin: Kiss Me x / Mothman: A Romance Musical

Two shows from Alex Franklin this year, both of which I’ve seen in preview, both of which are excellent. Kiss Me x is a silly, sunny and sublime hour of stand-up about dating as a trans woman, the blithe counterpoint to Sam Nicoresti’s Baby Doomer from last year, and a huge leap forward for Franklin as a stand-up. Mothman: A Romance Musical (co-written with Nikola McMurtrie and performed with McMurtrie, Alex Prescot and Hudson Hughes) is a return to Franklin’s narrative sketch roots, a full-service romantic musical about wanting to fuck cryptids, with an incredible joke rate and some genuinely good songs. I can’t decide between them so you’ll have to catch both.

RIYL: Sarah Millican / The Lonely Island respectively
Alex Franklin: Kiss Me x is at Underbelly: Jelly Belly at 14.25
Mothman: A Romance Musical is at Underbelly: Belly Button at 18.50

Cecily Hitchcock: Family Recipe

I first saw Cecily Hitchcock on a split bill with the also-excellent Jen Nolan two years ago, and since then she’s been signed as one of Avalon’s great new hopes, has become a fixture of London’s video sketch scene, and now brings her debut show to the Fringe. She’s already a uniquely commanding performer, brazen, high-status and very funny. We’ll be seeing a lot more of her in coming years.

RIYL: Katherine Ryan, Katie Norris
Cecily Hitchcock: Family Recipe is at Pleasance Courtyard: Cellar at 20.10

Chelsea Birkby: Is in Full Control the Entire Time

Birkby’s dense, joke-filled new show was already finely tuned back in February, so I suspect that by now she’ll have something truly impressive on her hands. Birkby has gone from strength to strength over the last few years, and this hour feels like a culmination of all her work so far, trading in high-minded questions about whether our choices are truly our own, along with a barrage of very silly PowerPoint jokes.

RIYL: Dave Gorman, Stevie Martin
Chelsea Birkby: Is in Full Control the Entire Time is at Pleasance Courtyard: Bunker Three at 21.45

Crybabies: The Scaring

The pre-eminent sketch group of their generation are finally back at the Fringe with a third hour, following on from nominated debut Danger Brigade and even better sophomore show Bagbeard. As far as I’m concerned, this is an essential booking; James Gault, Michael Clarke, and social media sensation Ed Jones have great stage chemistry, but it’s their intense, sometimes difficult writing process that makes their shows so rich. If you’ve heard their radio series you’ll know that almost every line is a joke, and the hit rate is insanely high. Their new show is the long-awaited "scary one".

RIYL: Airplane!, Pappy’s
Crybabies: The Scaring is at Pleasance Courtyard: Pleasance Two at 20.00

Ele McKenzie: Bringing it All Back Home

Fair to say this is genuinely a ‘highly anticipated’ debut hour. McKenzie has been polishing her material for years around the cooler venues of East London and now, fresh off a starring role in Funboys, is finally granting us access to the full hour. She’s a unique and incredibly talented comic, her material characterised by a sort of genial but haunted oversharing. Not words that usually go together, but a perfect combination in McKenzie’s hands.

RIYL: Johnny Vegas, Julia Davis
Ele McKenzie: Bringing it All Back Home is at Pleasance Courtyard: Bunker Two at 20.10

Harriet Richardson: Creep

Another debut, this one from an extremely-online performance artist, moonlighting in Edinburgh with an riotously entertaining chronicle of all the mad stunts she’s been involved with and the bizarre, unforeseeable repercussions of a life in DMs. When I saw this last month I was pretty blown away, especially since she’s still operating on very little total stage time.

RIYL: Kim Noble, Urooj Ashfaq
Harriet Richardson: Creep is at Pleasance Courtyard: Below at 19.00

Joseph Morpurgo: Highlander 70

This is the long-awaited return of one of the greatest, most influential comic voices of the 2010s. If you’ve never seen him before, hoo boy are you in for a treat. He specialises in delightfully clever, high-concept, cutting edge shows that build throughout the hour to a nuclear chain reaction of jokes. This new one, which I was lucky enough to catch in WIP at the Brighton Fringe, is based on an old yearbook found at a yard sale, and sees Morpurgo bringing its alumni to life. Amazed that this one hasn’t sold out yet, as his recent Soho Theatre revival of Soothing Sounds For Baby was impossible to get tickets for.

RIYL: Hans Teeuwen, David Bowie if he was a comedian
Joseph Morpurgo: Highlander 70 is at Pleasance Courtyard: Forth at 19.00, August 5-11 and 20-30 

Joz Norris: Hugh Jackman is the Phantom of the Opera (WIP)

Norris was a genuine word-of-mouth hit and a dark horse for a nomination last year for his silly and profound show You Wait. Time Passes. His new project again explores the travails of creating art as a fundamentally unserious person, this time in character as beloved Australian song-and-dance man / serious actor Hugh Jackman, a perfect vessel for the two warring sides of Norris’s psyche. This one has a more maniacally spoofy energy, and I think is even funnier – along with Sam Eley it was the best thing I saw among a very good batch at the Leicester Comedy Festival earlier this year. It comes this year as a work-in-progress show, and plays for two nights only.

RIYL: Emma Sidi, John Luke Roberts
Joz Norris is Hugh Jackman is the Phantom of the Opera (Work in Progress) is at Pleasance Dome: 10 Dome at 18.50 on August 8 and 20.10 on August 10 only

Lara Ricote: Inkling

Previously a best newcomer winner, Ricote was recently the MVP of Sam Campbell’s TV show Make That Movie and scored a coveted 4.5 stars on Chortle at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and so arrives at the festival with a lot of momentum. Covering a recent period that saw her break up with her long-term partner and reevaluate her life, this is a show that overflows with invention and her signature effervescent charisma. A really welcome return for one of the absolute best comics out there.

RIYL: Ania Magliano, Roisin Conaty
Lara Ricote: Inkling is at Monkey Barrel 3 at 17.40

Mark Silcox: I Have it All (A Success Story) / Gold Trading Sucks, I Lost Everything

Powerhouse comedic enigma Dr Silcox represents the Duality of Man this year at the Fringe with two new shows, a relatively fecund period of creativity for the man who previously took the same show up for about four years running, just slightly changing the title each time. 

In I Have It All, Silcox recounts how he made his fortune in gold trading and offers practical suggestions for becoming a self-made man like him. Meanwhile, Gold Trading Sucks is a Free Fringe show recounting his inevitable fall from financial grace and advising the audience on how to live without material possessions. It’s a bumper crop for those of us sensible enough to be Silcox completists.

RIYL: Attaining material possessions, transcending material possessions
Mark Silcox: I Have it All (A Success Story) is at Gilded Balloon Teviot: Turret at 21.10
Mark Silcox: Gold Trading Sucks, I Lost Everything is at Voodoo Rooms: Speakeasy at 14.00

Maya Ricote: Ay Am!

Yes, that’s the younger sister of Lara, and you’ll probably already have heard about her if you’ve been reading this column. Formerly a successful telenovela actress in Mexico, Maya recently threw it all away for the chance to come to London and become a straight-up clown. And funny bones evidently run in the family, because she’s very very good at it. 

Her debut hour finds her inhabiting the role of a lunatic Latina bombshell, recently defrosted from cryogenic sleep and ready to take Hollywood by storm. Would the Ricotes be the first siblings to get dual Best Newcomer nominations? It feels like a distinct possibility.

RIYL: Natalie Palamides, RuPaul’s Drag Race
Maya Ricote: Ay Am! is at Pleasance Courtyard: Cellar at 22.40

Sam Eley: Basil Crumbwick: Soul Sewage

Easily the most exciting find of 2026 for me has been Basil Crumbwick, the depraved creation of shy/retiring comedy writer Sam Eley. Encased in a goggle-eyed papier mache head, Crumbwick spews hysterical, ornately-written filth over the audience, like if Stewart Francis had escaped the universe of the Delightful Sausage. It’s punk, it’s weird, it’s surely a lock for a Best Newcomer nom if the panel have any sense.

RIYL: Angelos Epithemiou, The League of Gentlemen
Sam Eley is Basil Crumbwick: Soul Sewage is at Monkey Barrel 2 at 23.25

Sean Morley: Backchannel

I’ll say it again, the WIP of this show last year was the best thing I saw all Fringe, another stroke of genius from comedy’s master experimentalist. I’ll refrain from spoilers, but in typically ingenious style, Morley has found a way to spin gold by centring the audience, turning us all into mischievous hecklers but in a way that actually enriches the show. He’s had a year to tinker with the concept since then, so I’m guessing this will be very finely-tuned, a comedic hall of mirrors from which you will not want to escape.

RIYL: Stewart Lee, Alex Horne
Sean Morley: Backchannel is at Monkey Barrel Studio at 19.50

Wally Baram: Live

And finally, a bit more of an unknown quantity for me, these three nights are the UK debut of a promising young Mexican-Syrian comedian based out of New York. Baram was one of the breakout stars of Overcompensating and has also featured in Shrinking and What We Do In The Shadows. Like most people in the UK, this will be my first chance to catch her live, but she comes hotly tipped by many other rising and established stars over in the states.

RIYL: Ali Wong, Kemah Bob
Wally Baram: Live is at Pleasance Dome: Ace Dome at 22.50, August 19-21 only

• For a preview of 30 acts heading to Edinburgh, get your tickets now for Chortle's Fast Fringe at Pleasance Courtyard on Monday!

Published: 10 Jul 2026