Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Some people live huge lives. Among them, Cordelia Graham’s dad, Martin, whose life seems so incredible as to almost be a fairytale, going from literal chimney sweep to lord of a Cotswolds manor, where he built a 500-seat opera house in the grounds to stage events attended by the great and the good.

Martin died last year, and Cordelia, along with her older sister and younger brother, was asked to deliver the eulogy. This show is effectively Eulogy 2.0, another affectionate appraisal of her father, his eccentricities, his achievements, and the dementia that finally claimed him. 

She weaves into this a story of sibling rivalry – Cordelia being overshadowed by her overachieving elder sister, yet feeling some superiority over her feckless younger brother – as well as the power of imagination, which her dad had in spades.

So many amusing anecdotes surround him that stories such as him booking  a priory full of monks to sing at a service station to spread his love of opera or having his own hot-air balloon warrant barely a sentence each. 

Cordelia starts this show – brilliantly named after one of her father’s catchphrases – with a summary of his greatest hits, which is slightly awkwardly set to music, requiring her to take some lengthy pauses to time it right.

After that, she shows off what she says is a party skill: knowing instinctively how many siblings and in what order people have. This probably wouldn’t be the greatest icebreaker, even had she got them right, which she twice failed to do tonight. 

It’s a distraction from her thoroughly engaging central story, in which Cordelia’s arch, Shakespeare-quoting mother Lizzie is another larger-than-life character. 

Dad was clearly a massive inspiration to Cordelia  – his ability to make audiences laugh as he introduced the operas at his venue inspired her to go into comedy, while she shares a wonderfully touching newspaper she created as a child, supporting her dad during a running battle with the local planners. 

Up top, Cordelia offers something of a trigger warning, saying that while the show contains themes of grief and dementia, there will be lots of laughs. That’s probably overstating the case as there are more ‘aaaws’ than guffaws in this show – but it is undeniably a tender, affectionate, and warmly witty tribute to an exceptional, exceptional man. She’s done him proud. 

Review date: 31 Aug 2026
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Laughing Horse @ The Three Sisters