Sam Nicoresti on the best and worst of the Fringe

Alasdair Beckett-King is back at the Edinburgh Fringe. Here they share what they can't get enough of at the festival, their most embarrassing Edinburgh experience and the worst thing about the Fringe. Apart from the cost of accommodation, obviously…

Fringe Binge

First off, hello. Not enough people are saying ‘hello’ in these things. I hope this Binge Cringe Whinge finds you well.

I like the moment you step out of Waverley and remember exactly how it all feels. The city rushes back into you, tidal memory, spilling out of the hippocampus. The teeth-like stairways that feel like secrets despite being the principal connection between two major thoroughfares, the craggy baronial architecture, the almost AI-genned frontage of Brewhemia. 

It’s all there, waiting, like that one really comfortable jumper you remember you own on the first cool day of autumn. It’s a geographical time capsule of someone you forgot you were that you reopen year after year and add another handful of trinkets to. Despite the fact that a fog of war covers everything south of The Meadows and north of The Stand, it really does feel like home.

Fringe Cringe

I wish we could all stop promising to see each other’s shows on our day off. Please. I love you, but look after yourself. 

I find the inevitable track of the conversation very humiliating. I’d say I’ve had it 400 times in my life. ‘Hey, how’re you? How’s the show? Feeling good about it? Yeah, well it’s important to focus on the craft and not the industry noise. Haha. Yeah, exactly. Cool, look I’ve got to run because I’m late for a thing. What time are you on again? Argh nooooo!! Oh GOD! Damn it all to HELL, oh Jesus Christ NOOO- we CLASH!! But wait! A light in the darkness…. When’s your day off? Perfect! I’m the 12th! I’ll try to see it then. Yup. Haha. Look, I have to run, I’m having dinner on my own again. Much love. Byeeeeeee.’

It’s a drama, and I refuse the role. On my day off I want to go into the mountains and decide in my own time if I’m going to return, like Zarathustra. Please don’t make me feel the polite pressure to offer a mutual exchange of our only totemic Sunday. Please, let’s talk about something else.

Fringe Whinge

I know we’re not supposed to complain about accommodation costs because otherwise everyone would do it, so instead let me complain about the actual state of the accommodation we get for the price. 

Because look, quite frankly, if I were languishing in the lap of luxury, I’d be too busy in the day spa to worry about the crippling debt. But I’m typing this on the free Visit Ed public street wi-fi in the prison cell of Edinburgh University student digs. Every door slams with the ferocity of an angry teenager storming out of family dinner, the pool tables all lean further right than middle England, the hot tap is hotter than the upper limit of the kettle, the washing machine requires an app - an app, I beg of you! 

I came up here with such simple plans to cook and look after myself and there isn’t even a toaster. What is going on in this city? What is happening to our children in these institutions? They are taking hopeful minds and turning out eloquent defeatists. I’d say burn it all down but unfortunately every door is a fire door. 

• Sam Nicoresti: Baby Doomer is on at Pleasance Courtyard at 5.40pm during the Edinburgh Fringe

Published: 12 Aug 2025