Edinburgh Fringe 2018: 13 best comedy shows to see at this year's festival

There's 1,281 comedy shows listed in the brochure this year. That's far too many – so here are 13 of the very best

Triple threat: Ed Night, Heidi Regan and Harriet Kemsley (Harriet Kemsley photograph: Linda Blacker; Heidi Regan photograph: Karla Gowlett)

Getting animated about the Edinburgh festival is easy. Comedy is my life, after all: I run a production company and a venue that hosts Edinburgh previews, as well as actually performing there myself. What’s considerably harder is selecting just 10 acts to recommend.

So I didn’t. I’ve picked 13. Of the 1,281 comedy shows listed in the brochure this year, I’ve narrowed it down to just about one per cent.

It was a task made easier by the fact that many of the very best acts in comedy are not bringing fully-formed works to this summer’s Fringe; no James Acaster, no Lolly Adefope, no Michael Brunström, no Bridget Christie.

But there’s no shortage of thrilling work. I must mention those that very nearly made the list; previews from Sarah Keyworth, David McIver, Sleeping Trees, Olga Koch, and Kit Sullivan suggest their shows are all worth a look.

But enough introducing already. Here’s the lucky final 13:

Harriet Kemsley: Slutty Joan

Lots of comedians will tell you that they chose stand-up because it’s the only job that makes any sense to them. I’m not sure Harriet Kemsley has ever uttered this cliche, but I’d believe it from her: She’s one of the most ludicrous, warm, and hilarious people I’ve come across. Her show this year is about slut-shaming, and it promises another beautifully-struck balance between empathy and idiocy.

5.55pm at the Voodoo Rooms – French Quarter, 4-12, 14-25 August

Heidi Regan: Heidi vs Sharks

Heidi regan is a comic that I’ve seen crush rooms with her craftily structured deadpan material. Her deft writing has seen her skyrocket recently: in 2016 she won So You Think You’re Funny?, regarded as one of the best talent-spotting competitions in the business, adding the BBC New Comedian of the Year trophy in 2017. It’s 2018 now, and the Edinburgh Comedy Awards Best Newcomer is beckoning coquettishly from the wings, as Regan adds a more personal flavour to her brand of novelistic surrealism.

7.15pm at the Pleasance Courtyard – Pleasance Below, 1-26 August

Mat Ewins: What Sorry? My Mistake! The Doors Are Not Open; The Show Has Been Cancelled. Do Not Have Your Tickets Ready!

Mat Ewins is something of an enigma: a coder who can create entire computer games or animated videos for stupid throwaway gags; an antagonist who’ll toy with his audience at will; and one of the very highest laugh-to-minute ratio acts at the fringe. Besides his teasing and hysterical shows, he’s built a name in brilliantly bad promo – the biscuit being taken this time around with a title trolling both stressed-out door staff and unwitting audience members alike.

8.50pm at Just the Tonic at the Mash House – Just the Bottle Room, 2-12, 14-26 August

Big, biting punchlines: Sindhu Vee’s debut hour

Sindhu Vee: Sandhog

Sindhu Vee’s star is very much in the ascendency. She has a Have I Got News for You appearance under her belt and is fast becoming a bit of a big deal in podcasting, frequenting the uber-popular Guilty Feminist and hosting Radio 4’s Comedy of the Week. It’s easy to see why – when Vee speaks, particularly about the idiosyncrasies of family life, she radiates a universal and worldly wisdom, and packs big, biting punchlines. Somehow, this is only her debut hour – but expect her name to be everywhere soon.

16.30 at the Pleasance Courtyard – the Attic, 1-26 August

Ed Night: An Aesthetic

In 2017, thanks to a Best Newcomer nomination and a new BBC radio series, Ed Night stuck a big flag in the ground marked ‘one to watch’. His astute political and cultural observations are delivered through a world-weary mouth, seemingly built for roll-ups and Big Macs.

9.15pm at the Pleasance Courtyard – Bunker Two, 1-26 August

Automatic laughs: Lloyd Henning (left) and Peter Sutton are Foxdog Studios (Photograph: Hannah Platt, copyright Foxdog Studios)

Foxdog Studios: Robot Chef

This Manchester-based duo created some of the loudest buzz at the fringe in 2016 – quite literally, due to the sheer amount of wiring in what may be the world’s highest-tech comedy show. They are back with another combination of coding wizardry and robotic engineering in which we the audience can create and move avatars with our phones, use them to control robots, and cook actual food. Just imagine Flight of the Conchords, if they became IT consultants and invited you round for dinner and DMT.

1.20pm at Heroes @ Boteco – Basement, 2-8, 10-26 August

Kiri Pritchard-McLean: Victim, Complex

Very few comics are able to make big, punchy shows out of sincere, wholesome material. Very few try, to be fair, despite plenty of comedians being legitimately Good Eggs. Last year, Kiri Pritchard-McLean managed a big-hitting hour on the subject of mentoring vulnerable young people. If you’ve seen her MC, for which she routinely garners awards, you’ll understand how, as she effortlessly builds walls of laughter out of thin air. This year, she brings her empathetic comedy to bear on the subject of victimhood.

8pm at the Pleasance Courtyard – Bunker Two, 1-26 August

Jamali Maddix: Vapelord

Jamali Maddix’s career has gone fully stratospheric, with two seasons of his own TV show and, after this Edinburgh run, a debut world tour. Two years ago I delighted in his debut hour, a show in which he gleefully held his finger over the red button of offence in a manner akin to Alfie Brown or Fin Taylor. All three are small-p political comedians that don’t punch up at the establishment or down at the lowly, instead grabbing anyone in reach by the leg, ripping off their socks, and tickling their feet until they cry.

6pm at the Monkey Barrel Comedy Club – Monkey Barrel 1-12, 14-26 August

Jayde Adams: The Divine Ms Jayde

Last year, in a first for me, I witnessed a comedian receive a standing ovation for an opening set – an opening set that lasted just 20 minutes. That comedian was Jayde Adams. The Bristolian comic packs in self-deprecating jokes, imperious audience banter, pitch-perfect singing, and some of the very best on-stage attire in the biz. A proper comedic feast.

9.30pm at the Pleasance Courtyard – Pleasance Two, 1-26 August

Innovator: Jordan Brookes toys with the form and provides big laughs (Anneliese Nappa)

Jordan Brookes: Bleed

Where some of the other excellent acts on this list create an unpredictable atmosphere with props, songs, games or videos, Jordan Brookes manages to create an edge-of-the-seat show with just the words that leave his mouth. He toys with the form like it’s a sliding puzzle, refusing to let you see what the image is until you least expect it, and pulling the picture apart as soon as you think you’ve understood. And, as surprise is the mother of hilarity, he continually serves up huge laughs.

8.30pm at the Pleasance Courtyard – Beside, 1-26 August

Norris & Parker: Burn the Witch

This double act can do it all: sketches, songs, darkness, and depravity. It’s basically an entire cabaret squeezed into an hour. This year they’re working with keyboard whiz and monotone verbaliser Huge Davies, who’ll bring his own dark sensibilities to their high-energy wickedness. For fans of Julia Davis, The League of Gentlemen, and feeling a bit guilty after you’ve laughed very hard.

10.45pm at the Pleasance Courtyard – Beneath, 1-26 August

Kieran Hodgson: ‘75

There are some comedians that go for consistent laughter, those that show their heart, and others that create entire worlds for the audience to immerse themselves in. There are writers that perform, and performers that write. There are joke tellers, improvisers, storytellers and character actors. And then there’s Kieran Hodgson, who is every single one of those things. He’ll make you want to start comedy if you haven’t, and give up if you have. Properly unmissable.

8.15pm at the Pleasance Courtyard – Beneath, 1-26 August

Say cheese: Martin Willis (left) and Phil Lindsey are the very silly Loose Brie (Sam Nicoresti)

Loose Brie: Loose Brie Solve Everything

Okay. Full disclosure: this is my show. Is this a conflict of interests? Maybe. I haven’t fully researched what one of those is. But is it the show I’m most excited about this year? Absolutely. Rather than face the real-life issues between us, me and my best buddy Phil Lindsey decided to skip all that and fix everything that’s wrong with the world instead. Like the work of our director John-Luke Roberts, our debut hour is theatrical, honest, dark, and really bloody silly.

7.30pm at Laughing Horse @ The Newsroom, 2-12, 14-26 August