In this world nothing can be said to be certain in Jewish comedy, to corrupt a famous aphorism, except the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. At least until last year, when Covid put paid to the month-long festival for the first…
As a rule, I don't repeatedly tell 50-odd people in a moderately sized room that "I deserve salmon" on a weekday evening, but such is the force of the Fringe and Emmy Blotnick's bubbly nature that it would have been churlish not to have joined in. The 31-year-old New…
Joel Sanders, who has lived on a canal boat moored mainly in the south of England for the past decade, has two shows at the Fringe. One, called Angry Boater, is about living on a boat with hypertension, few practical skills and against the advice of his late father who told him: "Jews don't live…
It's good to see three Israeli comedians pitching up at the Edinburgh Fringe, with a show free of government sponsorship and therefore – contrary to allusions in the title – not in danger of being boycotted by the local pro-Palestinian brigade. It's the first day of the trio's…
It was a Friday night and as I wasn't going to a Friday night dinner, so what better way to spend it than by going to Candy Gigi's mock-horror musical Friday Night Sinner!? The eerily lit action loosely follows the plot of Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard, with Gigi – aka 30-year-old Brit…
Aaron Simmonds has spent the past year working on his story-based show about how he was trolled online for not being disabled enough and it's clearly been time well spent. The 29-year-old comic, who has cerebral palsy and has used a wheelchair since he was 15, particularly loves being…
Simon Brodkin is best known as the sarf London geezah Lee Nelson, his comic creation who starred in three series on BBC Three. He's also gained a reputation for performing stunts on Donald Trump and Theresa May, scattering swastika-covered golf balls on the former's golf course…
To give President Trump his due – and this isn't the show to come to if you are a Trumpian – he has single-handedly made American politics more mainstream. Yet for all that, a little prepping wouldn't go amiss if you want to fully appreciate all the references and nuances in this…
After a year of bad news stories around antisemitism, it's heartening to report that Jews are happy to be big on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, celebrating meeting points – and differences – and gleefully sending themselves up. This…