Ten shows about sex and sex work

Here are ten shows about sex at the Edinburgh Fringe...

Gag Writer

Describing herself as an ‘unashamed tart’, Melissa Todd has been a sex worker for 30 years ‘and has loved every second’, writing books and columns on her favourite subject. This storytelling show, full of what’s been described as ‘whore-positive’ stories covers her career as stripper, porn star, kink model and dominatrix.

Greenside @ George Street, 22:05, to August 22 only

Selina Mosinski: Puss in Boots – A Working Class Fairy Tale

Selina Mosinski found fame online (especially among the queer community) via her persona, Charity Shop Sue. But before that she was  Randy Cain, an 18-year-old stripper from Derby determined to get famous by whatever means, including entering The Sun’s Page 3 Idol competition to find fresh names for their daily serving of naked boobs… This is a ‘confessional memoir’ of that time, mixed in with some character comedy

Pleasance Dome, 21:30 

Keeley Hazell: Everyone's Seen My Tits

Keeley Hazell WAS a successful glamour model – having won that Page 3 Idol competition and The Daily Star's Search For A  Beach Babe at 17 – and became a familiar sight on the pages of lads’ mags such as  FHM, Loaded, Nuts and Zoo Weekly. Now, though, she’s a staff writer on Ted Lasso, where she has a small role as Bex in several episodes. Last year, she published Everyone’s Seen My Tits, a collection of essays about fame, glamour and infamy, subtitled ‘stories and reflections from an unlikely feminist’. This show is based on those writings. 

Pleasance Courtyard, 17:40

Stories From The Office Of A Sex Dungeon

In order to fund her dreams when starting out in stand-up in New York, Katharyn Henson worked a day job as the manager of a BDSM dungeon. From her desk, she served as the conduit between clients and the dommes  they came to see. She says that word is ‘often judged and misunderstood’  and gave her a wealth of stories about the ‘brilliant, funny and flawed people that shape such an unconventional workplace’ that she’s put into this show, returning to the Fringe for its third year.

Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 16:45

Bryn Woz: Smut

This character comedy show takes the form of a sex-positive book launch from a burlesque diva, telling wild, weird tales through song, striptease, filthy poetry and audience interaction. She brought this show to last year’s Fringe under the name Entendre Entendre when it won a four-star review from The Scotsman, which called it ‘funny, very rude, genuinely moving and memorably powerful all at once’.

Assembly Roxy, 21:10

Sex! With Becky Fury

Before she was a passionate political comedian, Becky Fury was a dominatrix, sex therapist and erotic hypnotist. Hence a late-night show comprising ‘confessional, freaky and outrageously funny stuff about weird, wild and wacky sex’.  She also has a show about racism, reform and multiculturalism at The Three Sisters immediately beforehand (23:15) with the fun title My Dad Paints Rainbows, Your Dad Paints Roundabouts.

Laughing Horse @ The Three Sisters, 00:30

Roger Prick: Sexopolis

Roger Prick, the drag king alter-ego of Han Whyte, is a 1970s pornographer, erotic novelist and lecherous Casanova trying to relaunch his dirtiest novel, revised and edited for the feminist era. The character has been described as ‘a  soft porn Alan Partridge’ and made the finals of the Leicester Square Theatre Sketch Off last year.

Underbelly Cowgate, 18:55

Strippers Advice Bureau/Ask A Stripper 

Who better than a stripper to act as an agony aunt? A world-weary tribe unlikely to be shocked by anything nor be in the least bit judgemental.  Stacey Clare – a stripper for more than a decade who wrote the book The Ethical Stripper about regulation, feminism and stigma surrounding sex work – is on hand with some of her friends in Strippers Advice Bureau, promising sage life tips as well as laughter.  Clare also co-founded the East London Strippers Collective as an effort to unite dancers around common grievances about their industry, including the poor representation of strippers in the media. 

Laughing Horse @ City Cafe, 18:45

Meanwhile in Ask A Stripper, which has been a Fringe staple since 2019, two strippers (pictured above) answer questions from the crowd – no filter and nothing is off-limits. The blurb promises that their ‘side-splitting stories, razor-sharp humour and unexpected asides will leave you speechless’.

Laughing Horse @ Dragonfly, 21:30

Claire Robin: Nun Slut

Clown Claire Robin takes the persona of a nun grappling with her erotic side as she explores the spectrum of sexual activity we’re all on (and possibly referencing the Madonna/Whore complex in which many straight men categorise women). This show won best comedy awards at the Sydney and Newcastle Fringe festivals down under.

Gilded Balloon Patter House, 18:20

SmutSlam

As well as being a performer, Cameryn Moore is a phone sex operator and ‘sidewalk pornographer’, writing custom erotica for strangers on her manual typewriter. She also created  Porn Café, a public porn screening and discussion series and helps run the annual Montreal Masturbate-a-thon in which participants masturbate to raise money for charity and try to dispel the shame and taboos surrounding it. She’s in Edinburgh with Smut Slam, an open-mic dirty storytelling and comedy show in the spoken word section of the Fringe programme, which she started in Boston in 2011. It features a rotating line-up, plus the Fuckbucket, where audience members can deposit their anonymous questions or confessions. 'There is not enough sharing about authentic sexuality in our world,’ says Moore. ’We make room for that.’

PBH's Free Fringe @ Banshee Labyrinth, 21:30

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Published: 14 Jul 2026