Dylan Adler is at home at the Edinburgh Fringe

I have always been a fan of musical comedy and looked up to comics such as Tim Minchin and Flight Of The Conchords. 

When I started as a musical comedian in NYC seven years ago, I quickly came to find that a lot of comedians and venues were very averse to musical comedy. They had a mentality that comedy should solely be jokes with a setup and punchline.

This was especially true in comedy clubs. Through time I found more alternative and queer comedy spaces in Brooklyn where I was able to hone in on my comedic voice. Even still, I found that musical comedy was not a very respected artform in the US by and large.

The UK, on the other hand, seems to be a bastion for alternative types of comedy. Britain seems to respect musical comedy and I believe the Edinburgh Fringe  plays a major part in this. The festival contains a unique blend of comedic, musical, clown,

cabaret, and theatrical performers. The Fringe seems to be more open to the idea of blending different genres of performance. The lines are less rigid. 

It makes sense that the UK and the Edinburgh Fringe have a greater reverence for musical comedy and have launched the careers of some of my favourites, like Tim Minchin, Flights Of The Conchords, and Bo Burnham. 

The Fringe has also been the launching pad for successful Broadway musicals such as Six and Stomp.

In the US, the expectation at a comedy club is to hear classic stand-up jokes with a set-up and punchline. The US is where stand-up comedy originated, so it makes sense that a lot of comics and venues are adamant about it remaining that way. 

Starting out in New York trained me to get to the punchline as fast as possible. It was all about brevity and capturing people’s attention quickly. You often only had three minutes to perform and if you didn’t get to your punchline soon enough you’d lose the audience. 

This mentality carried over into my jokes along with my songs. For many years, the majority of my songs I wrote were less than one minute long.

Upon first hearing Tim Minchin’s music, I was awestruck that he could write a song that lasted so long and still kept me entertained and laughing. His songs were funny by themselves and also served a purpose in the larger show that he was performing. I was completely gobsmacked that he could write an entertaining six-minute-long song about being lactose intolerant: Cheese.

In New York, the majority of stage time I got came from ten-minute sets on line-up shows. I was too afraid to write longer songs because I thought the audience would get impatient.

On the other hand, the Edinburgh Fringe seems to be a space where one can play more with time and variations in energy levels. When I perform ten-minute comedy sets, my energy level is consistently high. I want to grab people’s attention and make sure I don’t lose them in the first 20 seconds. 

But high-energy for an entire hour is unsustainable, as I have  come to find. An hour allows more room for breath, silence, and shifts in energy.

Before pursuing comedy I got my bachelor’s degree in composition for musical theatre and studied brilliant composers such as Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz, and Stephen Sondheim. I studied their scores in practice rooms until four in the morning.

 In writing my Edinburgh show I’ve been finally able to put my degree to use in conjunction with what I’ve learned from doing comedy in NYC. My creative comedy efforts are able to fuel the narrative of a show as opposed to just disparate jokes.

I love the way that music can influence a comedy show. It can heighten comedic tension, transform energy levels, and also beautifully weave together themes of a show. I believe that comedy is inherently musical. The volume and rhythm at which a joke is delivered has a profound effect on the way it’s received. 

I hope that the US will become less judgmental of musical comedy, but until then I will bring my piano to comedy venues and just deal with the eye rolls.

• Dylan Adler’s Haus Of Dylan will be at the Pleasance Courtyard at 7.30pm during the Edinburgh Fringe. 

Published: 14 Aug 2025