Revealed: The best-reviewed comedy shows on the Edinburgh Fringe | The numbers have been crunched...

Revealed: The best-reviewed comedy shows on the Edinburgh Fringe

The numbers have been crunched...

Foil Arms & Hog had the best-reviewed comedy show at this year's Edinburgh Fringe. 

The Irish sketch trio averaged 4.5 stars from eight reviews, according to analysis by the British Comedy Guide.

However, despite playing in the biggest venue at the Fringe, Underbelly's McEwan Hall, the group's show, Swines, was overlooked by all national newspapers. 

The group got five stars from Edinburgh49, Young Perspective, Edinburgh Guide, Broadway Baby, The Student Newspaper; four stars from The Wee Review and One4Review, and three from Chortle.

Today’s rankings are simple averages, and do not take into account the fact that student publications are usually more generous with their stars than established media.

Second on the list was Rhys James with an average of 4.375 stars, including four from the Evening Standard and 3.5 from Chortle.

Third was London Hughes was the individual to score the most five- star reviews, with seven. Her average was 4.33 stars and she achieved four stars from most national titles, including The Sunday Times, The Scotsman, The Telegraph, Chortle and The Guardian

The British Comedy Guide logged every review for every comedy shows, which this year meant more than 4,500 reviews from just over 100 sources. This was a drop of about 200 on 2018, with the site noting that supported ‘concerns that rising costs involved in attending and covering the festival are impacting on coverage’.

Here is their list of top-reviewed shows,

  1. Foil Arms & Hog 
  2. Rhys James 
  3. London Hughes
  4. Dreamgun
  5. Tarot
  6. Josie Long
  7. Frisky & Mannish
  8. Suzi Ruffell
  9. Rhys Nicholson
  10. Myra DuBois
  11. Max & Ivan
  12. Garrett Millerick
  13. Rob Auton
  14. Jen Brister
  15. Tiff Stevenson
  16. Andrew Maxwell
  17. Crystal Rasmussen
  18. Adam Hess
  19. Ed Byrne
  20. Ahir Shah
  21. Jenny Bede
  22. Jessica Fostekew
  23. Holly Morgan
  24. Desiree Burch
  25. Jordan Brookes
  26. Goodbear
  27. Laura Lexx
  28. Sara Barron
  29. Catherine Cohen
  30. Jayde Adams
  31. John Robins
  32. Jonny Pelham
  33. Joz Norris
  34. Alasdair Beckett-King
  35. Matt Forde
  36. Troy Hawke
  37. Matt Parker
  38. Tom Parry
  39. Crybabies

Published: 5 Sep 2019

We see you are using AdBlocker software. Chortle relies on advertisers to fund this website so it’s free for you, so we would ask that you disable it for this site. Our ads are non-intrusive and relevant. Help keep Chortle viable.