Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Cinematic epics on a Fringe budget have long been an Edinburgh staple, with countless young hopefuls arriving in the city with a headful of dreams and a carful of cardboard props.

Pat Rascal’s Space Gravy is one of the best examples of its kind: revelling in its absurdity, yes, but with proper jokes and fine-tuned performances to elevate it above the pack.

We start with a TikTok-style lipsync of the moment London was announced as the host of the 2012 Olympics, which would become one of this nation’s proudest moments. And nowhere more than in Yorkshire which had incredible success at the Games. Were it an independent nation – as some would surely hope – it would have been 12th in the medal table.

Thus bursting with county pride, it launches a project to put a man on Mars, aiming to beat Nasa, Elon Musk and the French to it. It is, as the trio slyly joke, a more realistic aim than getting a decent rail service in the north of England.

Anisa Khorassani, the team’s MVP, takes the lead role of the dreamer behind the project, the proudly named Yorkshire Yorkie Yorkshireson Humberside-Smith. Rob Davidson and Matty Blin are his childhood friends Jon and Yorgos – whose accent pivots the moment he lands in his native Greece, land of sage, large-testicled men.

Explaining the caper would be futile – just know that we meet a Yankee-Doodle US spy, a creepy version of Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill and a young Greek nephew discovering his sexuality. All played by the trio, of course.

But while the story might be big – and never straightforward – it’s in the small scenes where it shines, highlighting the interactions between the three performers who have a strong chemistry, an expert sense of timing, and well-developed physical comedy talents, including perfect facial expressions  to maximise the laughs in any scene. 

 They’re a tight unit – exemplified by the three-way kiss their alter-egos exchange to cement their friendship – and able to playfully muck around together, such as stuffing Blin’s face with feta. Because this all feels genuine, it means their underlying message that friendship conquers all isn’t half as cloying as it could have been.

The show could maybe benefit from a trim, and the trio enter the territory of the self indulgent towards the end as the plot gets increasingly over-the-top – though you could easily argue they’d won the right to go big by this point, and they are never short of knowing charm in acknowledging what nonsense this all is.

Space Gravy will make you proud to be from Yorkshire, even if you’re not.

• Chortle’s coverage of sketch and multi-character acts at the Edinburgh Fringe is supported by (but not influenced by) the Seven Dials Playhouse. Read more

Review date: 24 Aug 2025
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Underbelly Cowgate