Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

With a decade’s worth of circuit experience, Thanyia Moore thought she was going to storm the Edinburgh Fringe with her 2022 debut like Usain Bolt stormed the 2012 Olympics.  

But her best-laid plans went up in smoke when she  had a miscarriage on the first day of previews, which was soon determined to be a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy.

This is the story of what happened that August, including her workaholic determination to return to the festival to do the run, however ill-advisedly.

The show lands somewhere between stand-up and storytelling. While many comedians aim to be full-out funny about their medical issues, Moore is more considered in talking about hers. She’s careful not to bring the mood down, but the tone is wry commentary rather than raucously hilarious stories from the wards.

Still, even as she was in the midst of it all, she knew the experience would someday become content. It’s the comedians’ curse, she says: ‘We don’t have bad days, we find material.’ This show is her way of grieving.

After a bit of compering (and why not, that’s her comedy superpower), she sets up the stakes for coming to Edinburgh as a rite of passage even for a stand-up as experienced as her. She was lucky in having the backing of a production company (Soho Theatre, though they go unnamed in the show) to cushion the financial risk and, it turns out, be supremely supportive when she had to start cancelling shows.

Still, she was reluctant to tell them the truth at first, saying: ‘I didn’t want to be a woman coming to them with women’s problems’. That and her instinctive ‘show must go on’ work ethic meant she kept her bad news to herself.

But as the extent of the issue became apparent, she went back to her local hospital in South London, and the contrast between the demotivated NHS staff down south compared to the cheery souls in Scotland is one running joke.

Moore has an instinct for introducing recurring ideas to create storytelling rhythms, from sleeping through the coastal views on the Durham to Edinburgh leg of the train journey, to frequent cameos from the same cab driver. It’s delivered with quietly commanding charisma, while her velvety voice also goes a long way to pull the audience in – anyone looking for an audiobook reader, take note.

Moore’s experiences are clearly moving, and the questions of whether using work, or laughter are the best way to deal with it are raised, though not comprehensively addressed. Likewise, her decision to cut off all those who might have been able to help her seems shocking, but that aspect of her personality is not fully investigated.

Still, the candour with which she talks about what happened and how she dealt with it is as compelling for us as it is cathartic for her.

Review date: 9 Aug 2025
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Pleasance Courtyard