Edinburgh, 2026 🏴
FROM THE PEN OF THE PRIME MINISTER, AT HOME
Domestic Visit to Edinburgh, 2026
I had a brief jaunt northwards to Edinburgh, via Newcastle, with my brother. Every August, the world's largest performing arts festival take over the ancient Scottish capital and transform it into a hub of creativity and American tourists. I have been to the festival twice before, but the last time was about 10 years ago, and this would be the first time with my brother. We arrived Sunday morning and headed home Monday afternoon, fitting in 6 show, a bit of sightseeing, and a weeks worth of steps and stairs.
It is definitely expensive and it is a shame that these world class acts are perhaps only being seen by wealthy tourists and locals but you can't deny the level of talent on display, not only in the venues but peppered along the streets. I was constantly in awe and wonder and the genius of human creativity and potential and I left wanting to have more human experiences like this. There is simply nothing like live entertainment made by human flesh and spirit. In a time where artificial slop is being shovelled into our vision at every opportunity, we need to go out and be with people more and more. Here's who we managed to see.
Rob Auton: JUPITER
Sun 23 Aug 13:00 · Assembly Roxy · £18
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
What a way to start. This is the 4th of Rob's shows and it always leaves me inspired and hopeful. This show, hung (loosely) on the premise of an estate agent in Jupiter trying to sell somewhere on Earth, provided the same. Filled with laughs amongst some more tender moments, always hopeful and full of amazement and existence itself "How good is breathing!".
Ten Thousand Hours
Sun 23 Aug 17:30 · Assembly Hall · £19
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Something completely different. This circus acrobatic act drew gasps and applause seemingly every 30 seconds. These were strong, flexible, talented athletes and performers. The mind boggled at the things they were able to do with their bodies, the strength and balance on show made me question whether I was truly human. I can't even touch my toes, and here were these sculpted Aussie bodies chucking each other around with ease.
Sean Morley: Backchannel
Sun 23 Aug 19:50 · Monkey Barrel Comedy (Niddry Street) · £12
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The power of the fringe, of its size and variety is the fact that you get a diversity of approach and content of shows. This was a show that was unique, in that it seemed deliberately antagonistic to the audience, whilst making a comment on the idea of audience participation and the power imbalance in the relationship with the performer. Meta, but still packed full of laughs from surprising places.
Stamptown
Sun 23 Aug 21:50 · Assembly George Square Gardens · £20
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My favourite type of comedy is chaos. It's the shows that feel like they could fall apart at any second, where the performers themselves are on the edge of breaking and it feels like they're just going with the flow. Stamptown is exactly that. Superbly hosted by Zack Zucker the show features a roller skater called Dylan, Bollywood Spidermen, Frankie McNair, a eunuch looking for their balls, a sword swallower, fire lady and other world class cabaret acts. It's late night Edinburgh at its best.
Chris Cantrill: Rewilding
Mon 24 Aug 12:10 · Monkey Barrel Comedy at O'Neill's (The Tron) · £13
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The most conventional stand-up set we saw, SNL UK writer (and previous half of Delightful Sausage with previous Edinburgh award winner Amy Gledhill) gave us a joke filled story loosely inspired by the cutting down of the tree in the Sycamore gap. He's a fantastic stand-up and as a millennial I was the perfect audience.
Mark Watson: Sometimes People Are Being Over-Cautious When They Say Work-In-Progress, But This Truly Is Rough
Mon 24 Aug 14:00 · The Stand Comedy Club 3 · £15
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mark couldn't have made it more clear that this was a work in progress with his title, and so I went in with that expectation and so wasn't disappointed. There's definitely a show in there being formed, and Mark is such a great stand-up that even this was a fun hour. He's been someone I've been a fan of for a long time and hadn't managed to see live before, and will go again to see how the finished article turns out.
Back to Department of Propaganda