Festival shows offering advice

You’re always learning something at the Fringe. Here are ten Edinburgh shows that explicitly professes to be offering advice. (And here’s our tip - take them all with a pinch of salt)

1. How to Flirt: The TED XXX Talk 

Drag king Daisy Doris May – whose other creations include German party boy Häns Off – is behind this spoof talk in which Steve Porters – ‘ladies’ man and self-taught feminist’  shares his pick-up tips, and advice on getting to the next base. Porters other skills include iPod DJing and work experience at a local garage….

Assembly Roxy, 21:55

2. How to Write a Eulogy That Kills

Angela Beevers, pictured has been a producer on Silicon Valley and Beavis and Butt-head – and at the Fringe she will be sharing  this irreverent true story about 'trying to write the obligatory conventional funeral speech for a very unconventional woman’.

Beevers lost her mu in her early 20s, which she said deprived her of the opportunity to fully embrace the belly-dancing, spiritual, beekeeping woman – until she was tasked with saying goodbye… Struggling to find the words, she  enlistsed the help of a free eulogy website's hints and tips… 

Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose, 11pm

3. How (Not) To Cope

Still on the subject  of grief, Cambridge Footlights comic Isaac Kean deals with the death of his mother with what’s described as a ‘woe is me’ tragicomedy, working through feelings of loss by telling jokes to strangers.

 Just The Tonic at The Caves, 14:20 to August 13th only

4. How to Cheat on Your Husband

Well-travelled comedian Luana Matei offers a cheater's guide to love , marriage, divorce, therapy, death and cheating based on her experiences as a Romanian comic wholived in Tokyo for 12 years before getting trapped in Amsterdam during the lockdown.   Her dream is to cause at least one breakup among couples who come watch her show. A drop in the ocean compared to the  250,000 couples Daniel Sloss claims have split after watching his 2018 Netflix show Jigsaw… though that might not stand up to peer-reviewed scrutiny.

 Just the Tonic Nucleus, 13:50

6. How to Have an Affair Without Really Trying

More adultery!  American comic Becky Goodman presents a ‘tragicomic, raw, and vulnerable’ one-woman musical comedy about a 19-year-old's first-ever relationship… with a 60-year-old married man – and all the adultery that followed. It’s a shared-bill show with Janitor/Manager, Sean Conrad’s story of booking a one-way flight to NYC to become a stand-up comedian and quickly became... a janitor at a comedy club.

ZOO Playground, 19:40

7. How to Eat a Bear

The tips you never knew you needed. Mark and Dave set out to prove to the world that they are adults by doing the most obvious thing: killing and eating a bear. A previous review likened the dimwitted central characters to ‘the millennial answer to Beavis and Butt-head’. This low-budget adventure features music too – as you can hear on Spotify.

Greenside @ Infirmary Street, 21:55

8. How to Live a Jellicle Life: Life Lessons from the 2019 Hit Musical Cats

Back for a second year, Linus Karp performs this camp and kitsch multimedia show in a full Lycra cat outfit, half in tribute, half in mockery, to the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical and its awful film version.  

Pleasance Dome, 21:40, from 17th

9. How To Be Dumped: A Sort Of Magic Show

Sam Lupton – who played Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick in the Channel 4 Covid dramatisation This England, trivia fans –   has themed his cabaret show around a recent break-up, adding comedy and music to his magic and mind-reading tricks.

Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose, 19:00

10 How to Drink Wine Like a Wanker

A theatrical monologue – but one that’s witty and as well as sometimes distressing – in which Australian performer Anna​ Thomas shares her accidental journey from shallow wine novice to full-blown ‘wanker’.  And you can buy a flight of wine to drink along with the story…

Summerhall, 13:00 from August 15

Published: 16 Jul 2023