Edinburgh Fringe 2024 Preview – Part Two
From Cults to Class Acts – here's more to see at the Fringe
You know the way that they say that whatever your sexual kink you can find like minds online? The same applies to comedy at the Edinburgh Fringe. Whatever makes you laugh there will be someone there who delivers that very thing. In this ongoing column, I'll be picking out things that makes me laugh. And will hopefully make you the reader laugh too.
SPRING DAY
Normally when comedians pop up on television I've seen them in clubs or heard about them. When Spring Day (picture by Matt Crockett) appeared on Live at the Apollo she was a new name to me and I immediately thought 'where have you been all my life?' and 'why has nobody told me how hilarious you are'?
Day is from Kansas City, Missouri and now lives in the UK. In her latest show Exvangelical she talks about being in a Christian cult from the age of 13 until she was 26. At one point she was taught that the devil is the ruler of the earth until Armageddon and is responsible for everything negative from natural disasters to a bad haircut. If you can't look back and find the humour in that you aren't doing your comedy job properly.
Pleasance Courtyard, July 31 - August 25 at 6.05pm.
KATE-LOIS ELLIOTT
And just when you wait ages for a show about joing a cult two come along at the same time... Comedian, actor and writer Kate-Lois Elliott (picture by Rachel Sherlock) comes to the Fringe with How To Belong Without Joining A Cult and tells the story of how Kate's family were brought up in a secretive cult until her mum escaped as a teenager. One generation on, in a completely unrelated set of events, teenage Kate finds herself in the clutches of an equally toxic and militant operation...your average group of teenage girls.
In her full run Fringe debut, Elliott draws these two strands of her history together, and asks if what happened in the past explains her aversion to friendship cliques in the present. You might also get some tips on how to break away from the most insidious of modern cults, the WhatsApp group
Gilded Balloon, July 31 – August 26 at 4pm.
SIAN DAVIES
Sian Davies has already won an award at the Edinburgh Fringe. She picked up the Edinburgh Comedy Award Panel Prize in 2022 for Best in Class, the initiative that champions working class performers. Davies was fed up with class, money and social status being used as a barrier to performing. She wanted to give working class comics, like herself, an opportunity to perform at the Fringe without the financial struggles. Her show is pay-what-you-can, so that cash-strapped comedy fans can access it.
As well as putting on Best In Class compilation shows, you can catch Davies' third solo show Band Of Gold. It's all about regret, ranging from bad tattoos and gay divorce to antihistamines.
Davies (picture by Andy Hollingworth) believes that everything that has happened in your life so far has led to this point. So stand by your decisions, however misguided they might seem. Davies is working class and queer and fiercely proud of belonging to both communities. She also has a great quiff. Oh, and like fellow north-western comics, from Peter Kay to Jason Manford, she is laugh-out-loud funny, with an eye for domestic detail and a natural instinct for a winning quip.
City Cafe, August 1 - 25, 4.15pm
Read more Fringe recommendations here.
The Edinburgh Fringe runs from August 2- 26, previewing from the very end of July. for tickets and more details of all the shows here go to edfringe.com.