Featured image: Frisky and Mannish, performing at last year’s Fringe
With the Edinburgh Festival already underway, here are eight things to do in Edinburgh in August to really make the most of the month.
1. Comedy
Described by Josie Long as ‘a convention for comedians’, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is the place to see the best in upcoming and established comedy talent from all over the world.
This year marks a welcome return for Margaret Cho after a ten-year hiatus. The American comic blends stand-up with songs from her Grammy-nominated album in her new show, Cho Dependant: expect raunchy stories, celebrity slander and explicit politics.
For new comedy, try Christmas for Two, breakthrough stars of BBC Comedy Extra, who bring their brand of ‘elegantly odd’ sketch comedy to the Fringe for the first time.
For something off the beaten track, try 2010 standout, The Boy With Tape on His Face: silly, silent stand-up and a magical experience.
Festival favourites Frisky and Mannish complete their pop-parody trilogy with Pop Centre Plus. Structured around the careers advice service, this year’s show is something of a homecoming, with the dynamic duo taking on E4’s Udderbelly with a full-scale production. Affectionate, irreverent and absolutely absurd, F&M have promised takes on Adele, Cheryl Cole, Rihanna and N-Dubz. Check out So So Gay‘s interview with them.
Peter Buckley Hill set up the PBH Free Fringe in 1996 to combat rising ticket prices and poorly-attended shows. The Festival within the Festival has gone from strength to strength ever since, now taking in over 20 venues and commanding big name comedy stars. Between Saturday 6 and Monday 8 August, comedy guide ‘London is Funny’ handpicks four stand-ups every night, with headliners including Rufus Hound, Josie Long and Paul Sinha playing for free.
Free Fringe shows are popular, and fill up quickly, so remember to get there early if there’s someone you really want to see. Alternatively, find a venue that’s putting on a host of free shows and settle in for everything from spoken word to surrealist sketches, and everything inbetween.
4. Bette & Joan – The Final Curtain
Finding their niche in all things camp and irreverent, Foursight Theatre – the company behind Thatcher: The Musical! – return to the Fringe with their take on the famous feud between Hollywood legends, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, with a supernatural twist: on her death bed, Davis is forced to confront the ghost of her nemesis. Expect a wry, dry take on the story of Hollywood hatred that’s become a classic tale.
5. Edinburgh International Book Festival
With the Edinburgh Festival turning out the best in high culture and the Fringe catering for comedy and new writing, it’s easy to overlook the Festivals’ bookish younger sibling. This year’s programme includes five Booker-nominated writers, with Alan Hollinghurst talking about his new book, The Stranger’s Child (20 August). Elsewhere, the life of former Scots Makar (national poet) Edwin Morgan is celebrated with the announcement of the Edwin Morgan Poetry Competition winner from this year’s all-female shortlist.
6. An Evening with David Sedaris (16 – 20 August, EICC)
Fresh from a run on BBC Radio 4 with his essay series, Meet David Sedaris, the Grammy-nominated New Yorker journalist presents selected highlights from his work alongside unpublished extracts from his own diaries. Expect wit, warmth and belly laughs as Sedaris chronicles the mundane and the eccentric with equal irreverence.
7. Glasgow Short Film Festival (6 – 7 August, Summerhall)
Set in Summerhall’s atmospheric Red Lecture Theatre, Glasgow Short Film Festival presents an eclectic programme of highlights from Scotland’s leading short film event, including Choreomania – Louis Paxton’s alternative take on the zombie genre, featuring a hysterical body-popping plague – and Festival favourite Tord och Tord, a Swedish stop-motion animation.
8. Tom Lenk (12 August)
After a stint at London’s Soho Theatre earlier this year, Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Tom Lenk makes his Edinburgh debut with Nerdgasm, an all-singing, all-dancing stand-up show about life on the Broadway stage. Performing for one night only (with Lenk himself stoking rumours of an added performance on 13 August), Lenk is also filming a documentary, Who Do I Think I Am?, about his journey to Edinburgh, one-man shows and solo performers.
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