Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

By day, Coco The Time Travelling Tart runs immersive comedy tours of museums, galleries and city streets  – including some at the National Galleries of Scotland while she’s in Edinburgh.

I don’t know what her customers normally learn – but after this chaotic romp through history, you’re likely to know less than you did going in. But, my, what fun you’ll have along the way.

The premise here is that Coco, the towering drag alter ego of Max Norman who likens herself to ‘Princess Diana on stilts’, has lost one of her earrings, so we must take her time-travelling taxi across the aeons to see where she may have left it. The court of Queen Elizabeth I? The Titanic? The Garden of Eden?

It’s a silly and manic romp, with Coco exuding the exaggeratedly friendly vibe of a kids’ presenter while serving up content that’s decidedly adult. She addresses us all gushingly as ‘darling’ – except for the game sub she selects to be Slave Boy for the hour – and encourages us to take part in the exuberant spirit of group play.

She’s a messy, randy champagne-swilling diva in the hedonistic mould of Ab Fab’s Patsy. Slick professionalism would be beneath her, instead she revels in the bedlam of cheap cardboard props, low-fi visual effects and joyfully shambolic audience participation. 

The script is suitably shonky, with minimal plotting and puns aplenty – including crude double entendres that wouldn’t be out of place in a Carry On reboot – just enough to get us from one ridiculous set piece to the next.

Coco powers through with the giddy strength of her personality, persuading (almost) everybody to submit to the Hurly-Burly and at least attempt to answer her demanding questions. 

Crude in every sense of the word, this time-travelling tart offers the sort of dumb and disorderly entertainment that late Fringe nights were built for.  

Review date: 9 Aug 2026
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Underbelly George Square