10 acts with memorable images

A picture is worth 1,000 words, so here is a 10,000-word article, on acts who have gone above and beyond to create a memorabilia visual identity for their Edinburgh Fringe shows…

1. Desiree ​Burch

Photographer Jannica Honey created this striking image of the Taskmaster contestant, Live at the Apollo stand-up and voice of Netflix's Too Hot to Handle as she comes to the Fringe for a two-week fun of her latest tour, the Golden Wrath.

Monkey Barrel, 5.40pm, July 28 to August 10

2. Su Mi

Queer British-Malaysian stand-up and drag performance artist Su Mi performs their debut show as Thismotherphucker, a public nuisance, a dysfunctional anti-clown whose only mission is to destroy ego.  The comic says the show's mission is to 'destroy archaic stereotypes of Asian women. The image above, by Michael Julings, surely does that.

Underbelly Cowgate, 6.40pm.

3. Mr Handsome

Ellen Turnill Montoya performs her show as an actual hand, the original hand model trying to stay relevant in a world of feet-pics and trying to find his other half... The show is directed by Weirdos' maestro Adam Lartner, and the photo above was taken at a Brighton Fringe preview by Rob Trendy.

Assembly George Square Studios. 5.20pm

4. Twonkey

Twonkey – aka Paul Vickers, former frontman of cult rock band Dawn of the Replicants, as been coming to Edinburgh since 2010, where he’s carved out a niche for taking his audiences on charming, quirky and slightly shambolic journeys into alternative realities. This year, for his show  Zip Wire To Zanzibar, he’s performing in drag as the vaudevillian widow Twonketta, a lady who is ‘somewhat late for church’ as he tells the tale about rival rollercoasters and fairgrounds set by a smoky lagoon in a valley once owned by ex-milkman-turned-singer Shakin’ Stevens.

Laughing Horse @ Dragonfly, 8.15pm

5. Stephen Catling

In 2023, autistic alternative comedian Stephen Catling dressed as a bee. This year, his show’s called Moving On... Really, Really Slowly, so what could be more apt than becoming a gastropod mollusc for the promotional shots. One of the guises he adopt in the show is a slug stand-up telling jokes he way only a slug could (slowly). Another is Mr Owls For Hands Man.

Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 7.30pm

6. Jain Edwards

Jain Edwards makes her Fringe debut with She-Devil, a show about conspiracy theories, autism and men turning on you. The Manchester-based Welsh comedian is pictured wearing a flamboyant  red escoffion, the horned headwear fashionable in medieval times and looking suitable devilish.... 

Underbelly Bristo Square, 4.15pm

7. Lachan Werner

Head of a twink, body of a hunk, Lachlan's Werner's alter-ego is capable of uncanny strength. Wondertwunk, a follow-up to his cult-hit horror-comedy debut Voices Of Evil, is described as 'hilarious, puppet-infused, vaudevillian fever-dream, equal parts clowning, sci-fi and queer existentialism and packed with mind-bending feats of ventriloquism and physical comedy'.  'It feels like we are really stretching the possibilities of ventriloquism and theatre,' he says, 'as well as doing things which are incredibly silly and dark. It’s very different from the shows I’ve done before and doing a one-person circus presents a lot of wild challenges!' The photo is by David Pickens

Pleasance Dome, 9.50pm

8. Fish

New Yorker Funmi Adejobi plays a fish who wants to be a human in this clown show, learning how to walk, learning how to talk and learning how to do the most human thing of all: struggle with the crushing weight of existential worry in this stupid flesh suit. The one she wears under the even more stupid fish suit...

Greenside @ George Street, 7.35pm

9. Joe ​Kent-Walters

You probably know Joe-Kent Walters' alter-ego Frankie Monroe already, given it won him the best newcomer gong last year. Yorkshire’s biggest bastard and owner and compere of the nation's favourite Working Men's Club that's also a hellmouth, Monroe performs this year's show while being dead. And in his usual cheap whiteface and shabby dinner jacket..

Monkey Barrel and Cabaret Voltaire, 9.30pm

10. Cvnt

That Sophie Power performs as a human-sized vulva probably tells you all you need to know about this clown show, described as a 'wild, unhinged, immersive and interactive exploration' of what's usually assumed to be the worst word in the English language. One review from the Melbourne International Comedy Festival earlier this year called it 'a riotous treat that has the audience questioning everything they thought they knew about the female organ, power and profanity'.

Assembly George Square 9.15pm 

Published: 11 Jul 2025