Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

The thing with creating a tasting menu is that it takes an awful lot of prep – and Eryn Tett spent rather too long setting up the premise of this show to an audience who probably didn’t even know its title.

Her four-course structure imposes some order on what would otherwise be a random selection of off-the-wall jokes. Only the ‘roast’ course, which promises – and almost certainly delivers – the most ‘yo mama’ jokes on the Fringe properly combines concept and content, but let’s not get too bogged down in the gimmickry. 

Tett is a mild-mannered performer who makes sure she has the explicit consent of all those she puts down with her whimsical insults. Her gentle style –  with not a lot of on-stage authority – was tested tonight with two chatty groups: one providing constant low-level mumbling who eventually left, to much relief; the other a more boisterous trio who surprisingly settled into being a positive energy. 

Nonetheless, the deadpan Tett was distracted by the initial weird atmosphere that took a while to subside. Another oddness was of her own creation – handing out percussion instruments to the crowd to create a soundscape for one section, another intrusion on the gags. 

She quietly performs puns, weak and strong and usually with a surreal edge – and while there are stand-outs, they are relatively thinly spread. In last year’s Edinburgh Comedy Award winning show, Sam Nicoresti spoke about how ‘a laugh a minute’ was not the flex it first sounds… and Tett probably achieves less than a third of that, although the remainder bathe the audience in gentle amusement. 

Some tilts at absurdity definitely edge into ‘weird for weird’s sake’ territory, such as a baffling closer in which the quality of punchlines was assessed by smearing cream on balloons. But true to Tett’s demeanour, this was performed with respectful formality, rather than manic slapstick. 

She doesn’t shout about her joke-writing skills, which can be impressive, but tonight’s menu felt undercooked. 

Review date: 30 Aug 2026
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Laughing Horse @ Bar 50