Alan Davies (Gilded Balloon @ Appleton Tower)
Verdict: Welcome return
It has been ten years since the QI team captain did standup at the Fringe and long-term fans will notice the difference in Think Ahead.
It’s not just the material about time’s relentless march — he’s worried that he now, at 59, falls into ‘old white bastard’ territory — but the presence of a much darker section.
For the first time Davies talks on stage about the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of his late father.
Unflinching honesty: Alan Davies is back at the Fringe, doing comedy, for the first time in a decade. And be warned: his new show, Think Ahead, deals with some pretty dark topics
Team player: Davies on the BBC quiz show QI with fellow panelists (l-r) Jason Manford, Sandi Toksvig, Sarah Millican and Loyiso Gola
It doesn’t form the biggest part of the show, but it’s noteworthy for its unflinching honesty.
Davies moves on to safer territory with material about erectile dysfunction and there’s a perfect, self-deprecating ending in which his wife, Katie Maskell (a strong presence in the hour) provides the gloriously cheeky payoff.
Think Ahead runs until August 10.
Ria Lina (Money Barrel @ Cabaret Voltaire)
Verdict: Waspish wit
You may know Ria Lina and her waspish wit from various television panel shows.
It serves her well in Riabellion, where she ruminates on different attitudes to parenting (should you crush your children’s dreams as an important life lesson?), on everyday racism, and where she is in life.
The parent trap: Ria Lina has teenage children – and is also going through perimenopause. Hormones loom large in her standup routine.
Lina is a mother of teenagers, divorced but sharing a home with her ex, and is perimenopausal. She has much to say — very amusingly — about going through her ‘second puberty’ while her kids are going through their first.
A scientist by training, she gives a brilliant run-through of male and female hormones, assigning them each a personality.
It’s illuminating and entertaining, despite it not always segueing smoothly.
Riabellion runs until August 24
Chris Grace (Assembly George Square)
Verdict: All change
This is a unique show — words bandied about a lot at at the Fringe, but in this case absolutely true.
In 27 Hours (Works In Progress), American comic and actor Chris Grace devises a new show each day for his entire 27-date run.
I saw show number seven, Sugar, in which Grace, an effortlessly witty performer, talked about his Type 2 diabetes, somehow managing to make its history, symptoms and treatment funny.
27 days, 27 shows: American comic Chris Grace gives a different performance for every one of his standup dates at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Some sections are a useful medical primer, others are memories and anecdotes about how he is living with and managing the condition (and also how he occasionally doesn’t).
He’s also very honest; there’s a gloriously icky story involving a bodily function mishap, his sleeping partner and their overhelpful pet cat.
27 Hours (Works In Progress) runs until August 25.
Vittorio Angelone (Monkey Barrel)
Verdict: Political animal
The edgy Belfast comic, who sold out his entire Edinburgh run before the festival even opened, likes to push the boundaries.
You Can’t Say Nothing Any More deals with, among other things, cancel culture and being misunderstood, as well as autism, Richard Osman’s House Of Games and losing weight.
Getting up people’s noses: Belfast comic Vittorio Angelone steers away from politics in his show (apart from a recurring joke about Gerry Adams), to focus on cancel culture
He’s not a child of the Troubles, he tells us, so this isn’t a political show — although there is a running gag about Gerry Adams and a section on how the phrase ‘Up the Ra’ has changed from being an IRA exhortation to a neutral phrase (some may disagree).
This is a knowing and provocative show, but Angelone is a clever writer and a commanding performer. He’s one to watch.
You Can’t Say Nothing Any More runs until August 24.
