Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

So You Think You’re Funny? is the third, and most high-profile, competition Madeleine Brettingham has won this year, and with such a distinctive and all-encompassing worldview, it’s easy to see why.

Opening last night’s final, the Bath Comedy Festival and West End Female new act title-holder, established herself as the one to beat from the start.

Introducing herself as that rare species, ‘a female geezer’, Brettingham depicts the world of old-man pubs with the keen eye of a nature documentarian, an idea made explicit when she describes herself as an alpha predator, hunting down weak men who may break from the pack while on their Park Run.

All her material hangs on a no-nonsense, deeply cynical point of view. ‘There is no such thing as happiness,’ she asserts, we are either lonely and single or annoyed and in a relationship.

A few asides suggest depths she could not explore in a seven-minute set such as her brush with privilege at university or her surprising pro-incel stance. 

Peter Joseph, here after winning the similar Raw new act competition at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, stuck to safe tropes such as his appearance and suggesting macho sports are actually homoerotic, MMA in his case. 

He has a confidence and solid stagecraft, but not enough stand-out material. For a straight guy there was rather a lot about pegging and homosexuality, which created a slightly odd vibe. And his closing routine was deliberately punchline-free, anticlimactically.

Valeria Vulpe has an immediate point of difference being from Moldova, and leaps right into bitterly dark one-liners about her homeland’s troubled history. The outlook’s unique, and she backs that up with strong writing, both of short, pithy gags and slightly more surreal ones. 

That Moldova is the least wealthy nation in Europe, for example, leads to some absurd ‘we were so poor…’ jokes, while she also has some fun quips about English idioms - de rigueur for many foreigners, but neatly executed here. She can consider herself unlucky not to be placed.

Manchester-based Qasim Akhtar is ‘awkward and nervous’ by his own admission, but actually pretty assured on stage. When it comes to material, it’s a mixed bag, hitting a few easy marks but showing flashes of originality.

Jibes at white folk hit home, especially, and explaining why Wetherspoons is like a mosque is a fine gag (and the fact you feel it would probably wind up boss Tim Martin makes it all the stronger). Then some home truths about his dad’s native Pakistan level the ground. But other concepts, such as his mum being a ‘refugee’  from Yorkshire and insisting a girlfriend is real but adding ‘you don’t know her, she goes to a different school,’ is too familiar.

Reb Day’s been grappling with her sexuality ever since she developed a crush on Rosie, the spider from A Bug’s Life. But she’s taken a plunge and married a bloke – even if she regrets the expense, imagining sillier but more satisfying uses for the money. She’s confident on stage and playfully teases blokes’ entirely misplaced belief in their own abilities. Now she has empirical evidence of her own comedy skills, however, after scooping second place. 

The first few acts in the second half struck a more earnest tone, bravely sharing some tough things they’ve faced in their life, if not always processing them into comedy.

Most poignant of the lot was Sean Chalmers, with a poignant tribute to the foster parents who raised him and a powerful, affecting account of his suicidal depression. He’s got a few good gags about these bleak moments, which will no doubt form the backbone of the one-man show which already seems his destiny. But for a short set, it was perhaps a bit too real, leaning into the heart-wrenching more than the funny.

Oro Rose’s struggles were with their gender identity, still a little unresolved. ‘I identify as a conundrum,’ they quip, before a fine line about their appearance.

If the comedian is confused, then so are we, with the lack of certainty about who they are more of an obstacle for the audience trying to get a handle on their stand-up, rather than a clear source of gags… although a callback they did to the basic straight guy in the audience whom compere Laura Lexx had previously teased was a nice touch.

Next up, the Holocaust! German-Jewish act Noni had some very dark material on the topic, saying talking about the genocide was her ‘love language’, and justified as her grandmother was in the concentration camps.

It’s a tricky sell, and she didn’t entirely succeed, but if you like your comedy jet-black this might be for you. But she did soften it by moving on to more accessible material about dating and how being a single woman was ‘emancipating’

Joel Walker is Britain’s No1 Ivo Graham tribute act. He has exactly the same cadence, mannerisms and comedic style – and while there are worse comedians to emulate, it’s just too uncanny. 

Luckily though, his material is idiosyncratic in its own way, starting his set by explaining it’s all going to be about his 2007 Ford Fiesta Zetec Climate, which is a lie. Only half the set was.

He’s a strong writer, talking about his jobs entertaining children and as a pallbearer and pet owners making excuse for their animal charges as well as sharing an eccentric obsession with the short-lived Pepsi Raw before moving on to that sweet, sweet  2007 Ford Fiesta Zetec Climate stuff. It earned him third place… now the challenge is tweaking his delivery to be his own.

Rachel Porter could offer nothing so sharply written, but she makes up for it in personality and presence. Early jokes about pee and periods set her up as an unashamedly below-the-belt comedian, though it’s probably a shame her material about looking like a lesbian but actually being straight comes from the same place as some of Lexx’s shtick, which we’d already heard.

The climax of her set was a rambunctious and bold piece of audience participation involving her moon cup (fully sterilised she assured us), throwing down a gauntlet to the poor man she selected to leave the gig as either a hero or a coward . He accepted the challenge, and her routine - and all the competition sets – ended on a high.

Review date: 22 Aug 2025
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Gilded Balloon at Appleton Tower