Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Let’s address the elephant in the room first: Fatiha El-Ghorri seemed very much an outlier when she was named on the Edinburgh Comedy Award best newcomer shortlist.

With a Taskmaster run and Bafta-nominated BBC Three pilot among her many TV credits – and the award news coming two weeks before she plays the 1,200-seater Hackney Empire as part of a nationwide tour backed by one of the biggest agents in the industry – the ten-year circuit veteran does not seem to be in the spirit of the ‘newcomer’ category.

But however much she does not seem like the underdog now, that has not always been the case. It is impossible not to be impressed by her story of pulling herself up by her bootstraps from homeless hostel to TV star. 

Her journey has been particularly fraught as a hijab-wearing Muslim woman, and she gives just the smallest sample of the terrifying verbal abuse she has suffered at gigs and afterwards.

Under such brutality – and the general travails of life that have included cancer and two divorces – the 45-year-old East Londoner has learned to develop a very hard armour, which manifests in a surly stage demeanour that makes Jo Brand look like Alan Carr.  Often a punchline will be just a blunt, sweary variation of: ‘Shut up’ or ‘What the hell, bruv?!’. On disagreeing with JK Rowling’s views on trans women, she offers: ‘I’ll come to your castle and smash your face.’

It’s not exactly artful, even if the pugnacity forms part of her shtick to demolish the myth of the demure, subjugated Muslim woman. When she says she’s been banned from the mosque for fighting, we believe her.

Details of her back story drip into a scattergun set that could have used her powerful narrative to find more form and impact. As it is, Stacking Cockney Doll feels like a collection of club routines, even though there is a strong story there for the telling.

She bounces between being examined by a male gynaecologist, Muslim dating app profiles, horniness, bonkers phone calls from her Moroccan mother and other vignettes from her massive family. There are some good gags here, as well as insights into her life as a visible Muslim woman and – even more significantly – a proud working-class Londoner bristling at the gentrification of her Hackney hood.

But despite strong individual elements, the hour’s still patchy, and fails to bind into what feels like a cohesive show, with El-Ghorri inconsistent in channelling her understandable belligerency into proper punchlines.

Review date: 31 Aug 2026
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Monkey Barrel Comedy Club