James Trickey on the best and worst of the Edinburgh Fringe

James Trickey  is performing his solo show Split  at the Pleasance Courtyard at  21:25 during the Edinburgh Fringe, as well as being half of sketch duo Burger And A Pint, whose show is at the same venue at 16:15. Here he talks about what he can't get enough of at the festival; recalls his most embarrassing Edinburgh experience and complains about the worst thing about the Fringe (apart from the cost of accommodation, obviously)….

Edinburgh Binge

The Edinburgh Fringe has a plethora of absolutely amazing things to completely overindulge in, culture, history, comedy, music, drinking, there truly is something for everyone. 

For me, the thing I love to constantly attack is the food. There is seriously no shortage of choice. You have the Mosque Kitchen, which does incredibly well-priced and generous portions of fantastic chicken biryani and saag paneer. Then there’s the great East Asian spots around the city such as Noodles Home or Rice Noodle Bar which I constantly frequent for their potato dishes (a little joke, but seriously the noodles are fantastic). Then there’s every single food stand serving every genre of cuisine known to man. 

Yes, some of it is overpriced, but I can’t stop myself hitting a new one up every day for the fun of it. And of course, how can I talk about food stands without mentioning Panquake. The number of times I've been stood outside of that little hut, absolutely gorging myself on savoury cheese and ham crepe at 5am only to immediately follow it up with a Biscoff one for dessert is reaching the hundreds.

I also have to give one final shout out to Edinburgh Bargain Stores, it’s not a restaurant no, but it sells literally everything you can imagine and then somehow even more? It’s also got me out of multiple pickles and deserves some acknowledgement.

Edinburgh Cringe

I once did a split bill with two of my very good friends, which did a very good job of attracting fairly small audiences. On one of these occasions, my Dad and a couple of his friends came to watch, and they would honestly NOT stop heckling. Nothing that bad, but they would just provide occasional commentary throughout our sets which the other four audience members found very distracting.

We were all quite new at the time and so didn’t really know how to politely address the fact that the man ruining the show was also my 80-year-old father without seeming like we were bullying an old man.

Luckily, he was able to do that for us. As we started the bucket speech, he stood up and raced to the exit so that no one else was able to leave (and I can’t stress how desperate they were to do so) and confessed that he was, in fact, my Dad. He then proceeded to do the loosest three minutes of his own material, causing me to wonder if I could ever show my face in the city again.

I will confess that one of his jokes was actually quite good and I stole it for myself afterwards.

Edinburgh Whinge

Listen, I know this is probably culturally offensive or sacrilegious or whatever, but does every road NEED to be cobblestone? I know they add to the beauty and charm of the city and they’re probably protected under some historic authenticity act but my word, I can’t take it.

I understand this is almost definitely a me problem because I refuse to wear shoes with any kind of structural integrity or built-in support and I also have a fantastically weak left ankle (I’ve rolled it three times in the last two years and now own a personal moon boot) but is it too much to ask for a flat road at some point?

I just don’t want to be constantly looking down to ensure I don’t break my ankle every other step! Don’t even get me started on the small knee-high bollards they love to put at the perfect tripping points. 

I once saw 13 elderly people fall victim to those menaces in a single Fringe while they were walking backwards to avoid an onslaught of flyerers. Sometimes it would be nice to look up at all the amazing scenery everyone keeps talking about….

Published: 15 Aug 2026