More comedians share the best Fringe shows they've ever seen

We asked some comedians to tell us what was the best show they've ever seen at the Edinburgh Fringe. Here are their answers…

Josh Elton

I remember once watching From Dusk Till Dawn on TV late at night thinking it was a crime film, then suddenly there’s vampires playing guitar with human guts and I was like… I never want to know anything about a show before I watch it again. I know Jordan Brookes's work is often innovative, but short of that, I knew nothing when I went to see Fontanelle

When the first person ran on stage as if from a musical I half expected them to never appear again. Then when I realised it’s Jordan doing a musical I was excited, but I certainly didn’t expect it would also be a great musical. I’ve been told that on some night, parts of the audience, who come expecting a musical, are severely disappointed (which I’m sure kind of makes it more funny). 

On this occasion the whole crowd was into it from start to finish. So many times I’ve said, ‘Don’t tell me anything about the show’ and had to suffer through something which, if I’d read the blurb, I would have actively avoided. All of that is worth it for the giddy excitement of not knowing what was coming and getting a song about putting a vagina in your bum.  

Josh Elton: Away With The Fairies is on at Hoots @ The Apex at 8pm

Matt Parker

At the 2015 Fringe I was told I had to see Foxdog Studios. Their venue was in a condemned-chic building up several flights of stairs which seemingly didn’t make the grade to be in a NPC car park.

In the room they had a projector balanced on a box and asked everyone to connect to their phones to an internet router clearly designed to steal our personal details. But what I got instead of identity theft was the greatest interactive tech comedy show I have ever seen.

IT consultants by trade, they outsourced much of the show to audience member’s phones and I’ve never laughed so thoroughly at live code debugging. They’re back in 2025 (Underbelly Cowgate, 8.25pm) and I hear they’ve upgraded the box.

Getting Triggy With It: Matt Parker Does the Maths is on at Pleasance Courtyard at 6.30pm. 

Adele Cliff 

My best ever show was Glenn Moore: Glenn, Glenn, Glenn, How Do You Like It, How Do You Like It in 2018. Glenn is a spectacular comedian and all of his shows have been so brilliant, but I particularly remember leaving this 2018 show in complete awe. The brilliance of his combination of joke-writing talent and wonderfully silly narrative totally blew me away. It was the year I did my first solo hour and watching this show it felt like I’d seen how to do it perfectly.

Adele Cliff: Adele, Adele, Adele... Cliff It Isn't the Consequences of My Own Actions is on at Just The Tonic at the Mash House at 5.05pm 

Ted Milligan

Lou Wall: Lou vs the Internet was so good, I had a breakdown after it and went for a walk then I accidentally ordered a full burger I didn’t have time to eat and left my good friend Will Hall, to pick up the bill for a big old meal and then I got so drunk that at 3am I wrote a note in my phone that said 'The story of King Kong is the story of all men’  and I have no idea what I meant by that but truth be told Lou’s show was incredible. 

Ted Milligan: United is on at Pleasance Courtyard at 9.45pm

Andy Barr 

There have been so many transcendentally wonderful Fringe experiences over my years of going (not to mention, a cavalcade of excruciating horrors), but for me, no show can best watching Barnaby J Thompson perform their Big Society.’I can’t remember what year it was, and a quick search yields little trace (did I imagine it? Has it been expunged from the record by malign forces?), but I do remember that it took place in a large and brightly lit hotel function room in New Town. 

I was profoundly hungover at the time, and it was reasonably early in the day, so my memory of the content of the show is hazy. There were few of us in the room - I was there, at least two friends, a couple about six or seven empty rows back who I presume had wandered in by mistake, and Barnaby’s parents.

As I say, I was mostly in a catatonic state for the majority of it, but I was shaken loose with a jolt by a section of the show about Alien which culminated in a 10-minute (could have easily been 20) abrasive soundscape during which Barnaby shouted ‘Sigourney Weaver’ into a microphone, mounted on what looked like office equipment, and hooked up to a succession of loop and delay pedals. 

The manipulation of the pedals, the repetition of ‘Sigourney Weaver,’ wondering what the couple at the back felt (if they were still there), and the sensation in my chest as my body struggled to cope with what I’d been putting into it and what was coming out of it (for avoidance of doubt, this was laughter and not vomit) made me feel as if I was going to die. And yet no show has ever made me feel so alive.

Andy Barr: The Hotly Anticipated 4th Debut Hour from Rising Star, Andy Barr is on at Pleasance Courtyard at 8pm

Shalaka Kurup

 I love the Fringe, you get to see the entire spectrum of what the human mind could possibly conceive, from the best stand-up in the world, to clowning that will modify your neural pathways, to a man who eats cheese for an hour while you watch  2023 was my first time at the Fringe, and a lot of my key memories of what comedy and performance could be were formed that year. I was blown away by Pierre Novellie, Janine Harouni and Moses Storm, and my favourite show of the year: The Amazing Banana Brothers by Bill O’Neill (and brother).

I spent most of Fringe 2024 in a daze thanks to flyering (big mistake), but my favourite show that year was Abby Wambaugh. It’s a masterclass in performance that makes even the coldest, deadest human heart (mine) melt. I laughed, I cried, I thought about it for months after the Fringe.

 Shalaka Kurup: Get A Grip is on at Pleasance Courtyard at 8.30pm

Published: 2 Aug 2025