Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Stopping at the Fringe for just a handful of nights, Wally Baram is a rising cult star in America, with writing and acting credits including English Teacher and What We Do In The Shadows, and a starring role in Overcompensating, which seems to be the wellspring for most of her UK fans.

Accompanying Baram on stage is a large sparkly box that is quickly revealed to contain Jersey Mike, a huge plushie snake with big snake boobs and a tiara. This is Jersey Mike's special day; her 15th birthday or quinceañera, where we celebrate her transition from snake childhood into young snake womanhood. The foam snake is here as a stand-in for the real Jersey Mike, who couldn’t make it tonight due to the UK’s strict import laws.

Baram had always had an inexplicable love of snakes from a young age, but it was only when she inherited her drug dealer’s 11 ball pythons that she realised it could also be kind of a moneyspinner, leading this tiny teenage girl to become a prolific and successful snake breeder, able to pay for her Manhattan apartment with snake money alone.

That’s just the start of the weird and wonderful revelations contained in this very funny and charming show. Condensing an American set into a UK Fringe show has had a strong positive effect, leading to punchy, strange anecdotes that accrue impact from Baram’s unconventional word choices. There are definitely places where her stories tantalise as much as they satisfy, but the show is all the stronger for this excision of dull connective tissue.

Baram herself is a droll, unpredictable and magnetic performer, definitely on the stronger end of US imports. Hopefully we’ll be seeing much more of her over here.

Review date: 27 Aug 2026
Reviewed by: Tim Harding
Reviewed at: Pleasance Dome