The Edinburgh Fringe has always had the power to create comedy stars. The likes of Steve Coogan and Frank Skinner might never have made it big – and certainly not so quickly – without first winning the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Award.
In a frenetic, fast-paced world of TikTok views and online clicks, talent still has to prove itself on stage and Edinburgh remains the place to do it. Below is our pick of this year’s contenders to break out and make it big.
Benji Waterstones, Pleasance Courtyard
Someone, somewhere must surely be writing a PhD thesis on the overlap between the medical profession and comedy. From Jonathan Miller to Adam Kay, medics have regularly pivoted from stethoscopes to stand-up. There are at least seven medically-trained comedians in Edinburgh this year. Waterstones already has a book deal and television series in development. His specialism is psychiatry, hence the title of his autobiographical show, You Don’t Have To Be Mad To Work Here…
Larry Owens, Assembly Roxy
Larry Owens is destined to make a splash with his Edinburgh debut, POC - Proof of Concept. Owens is an all-round entertainer who already has a following back home in New York. He cut his teeth on the same club circuit as full-throttle star Catherine Cohen and gained further traction starring in the Broadway production of acclaimed hit A Strange Loop. This solo run is the perfect platform for his crowdpleasing versatility. Expect impressions of Oprah and Rugrats characters alongside virtuoso vocals.
Mary O’Connell, Pleasance Courtyard
You can usually tell who is going to be a next big thing by their regular appearances in comedy competitions. The likes of Jimmy Carr, Jack Whitehall and Greg Davies moved through the ranks via comedy finals and recently Mary O’Connell has been figuring in laugh-offs too. She recently banked the biggest ever prize in comedy, £100,000 in the inaugural OnlyFans Creative Fund competition and is both funny and outspoken about being a queer woman of colour in an industry dominated by straight white males. Her show, Money Princess, is all about the conflict of loving money but hating capitalism.
Mr Sister, Just The Tonic
Ever since French and Saunders stopped working together, the call has eternally sounded for “the new French and Saunders”. The fact that they have now started collaborating again has not stopped the search. The latest contender is Mr Sister, the alias of Holly Kellingray and Brooke Jones. Their upcoming Fringe show is a selection of barmy characters and deranged sketches exploring their relationship as “besties forever”. They have already clocked up over 15 million TikTok views but it’s as a live duo on stage that they truly come alive.
Kuan-wen Huang, Gilded Balloon
South London-based Huang claims to be the only Taiwan-born stand-up on the English circuit. He makes his Fringe debut with Ilha Formosa, the story of how he traded sunny Taiwan – the title means ‘beautiful island’ – for rain-sodden Britain. It is a timely piece, with Huang reflecting on identity as the threat of Chinese invasion hangs over his birthplace. A regular MC at LGBTQ+ events, he has an engagingly impish sensibility and is also a qualified accountant. You’ll laugh and might even get advice on doing your tax returns.
Joe McTernan, Underbelly
Local comedians are often overlooked during the Fringe but Joe McTernan could change that. The Edinburgh-based stand-up has over 30 million views and 170,000 online followers for his character-based sketches. He makes his debut with Life Advice That Won’t Change Your Life, skewering inspirational quotes, self-help sermonising and motivational mumbo jumbo. His fame is certainly on the rise: McTernan recently shot an Instagram reel with Angie Harmon from TV series Law & Order after she saw his work and visited him in Scotland.
Tatty Macleod, Monkey Barrel
This is the Edinburgh debut from a rising star whose online following has seen her dubbed “The French TikTok lady”, thanks to her viral clips about Gallic versus English culture. Macleod is well placed to comment. She was raised in France but in 2007 decided to return to the UK. In her show Fugue she excavates the nature of cultural identity and as someone straddling different cultures explores the divide between the two countries and their longstanding complex, sometimes dysfunctional, relationship.
Alexandra Haddow, Pleasance Courtyard
Corby-born Haddow was recently awarded a £500 bursary by London’s West End Comedy Club to support her Fringe run. The money might not be life-changing but the endorsement by the club confirms what the comedy world already suspected, that Haddow is going places. In Not Her Finest Hour, Haddow finds the funny side of the bad decisions she has made in her life regarding relationships, sex, feminism, kids, and even dancing. It looks, however, as if she has made a good decision by deciding to perform at the Fringe.
Megan Stalter, Gilded Balloon
American whirlwind Stalter crossed the Atlantic for a brief run in London a couple of years ago, but this is her Edinburgh debut and it promises to be unmissable. The self-mocking stand-up, who appeared in the US comedy-about-comedy Hacks, calls her live show An Evening Of Mayhem and for once that might be an understatement. She sings, she tells jokes, she chats to the audience. If you want something predictable steer clear. Anything can happen when Stalter is in the room. The only thing for sure is that you won’t have seen anything quite like this before.
Lachlan Werner, Pleasance Courtyard
The Edinburgh Fringe is as renowned for discovering curveball acts such as Doctor Brown and Jordan Brookes as giving early shout-outs to stars who would go on to mainstream success such as Peter Kay and John Bishop. A potential offbeat breakthrough act this year is Lachlan Werner, who trained at clown school Ecole Philippe Gaulier (like the aforementioned Doctor Brown, and also Sacha Baron Cohen). Werner mixes comedy with puppetry and horror in the cartoonish Voices Of Evil and has been described as the “demon love-child of The Muppets and The Exorcist” – how can you resist that pitch?
Josh Jones, Pleasance Courtyard
There is a lengthy tradition in comedy of gossipy, camp stand-ups becoming household names, from Alan Carr back to Larry Grayson and beyond. Chatty Mancunian Josh Jones could well be the next in line to be embraced by the mainstream. Jones was on the cusp of fame before the pandemic but has been making up for lost time since, picking up a Best Newcomer nomination in Edinburgh last year. He has the kind of oven-ready personality that is made for television. Catch him live now before he takes up residence on your screens.
Lorna Rose Treen, Pleasance Courtyard
I’ve never seen character comedian Lorna Rose Treen do the same thing twice. I’ve seen her play a gothic vamp and a childlike girl scout on stage, two characters so different it is hard to believe they were played by the same person. Treen says that she has been pretending to be other people for fun since she could dress herself and it shows in her commitment to each unique creation. What they do have in common is that they showcase Treen’s off-kilter comic sensibility. Just when you think that every angle has been covered Treen takes things to another refreshingly original level.
