Every August, radio producers ring reviewers at the Edinburgh festival and ask — how’s the satire this year? The answer has been roughly the same for the past 15 years: it’s almost dead. That’s not to say there’s no politics — but it’s personal stuff that dominates. Even comedy’s most prominent lapsed Marxist, Mark Steel (Assembly George Square, 8.15pm ★★★★), has dialled down the lefty quips for a moving show about tracing his biological parents. Despite his belief in the power of nurture over nature, he’s shaken to find his dad is a gambler, socialite and former pal of Lord Lucan, while his former-model mum spent about as long in the Socialist Workers party as Steel, despite their lack of connection. Profound yet funny.
That same complex, intimate passion infuses both Nish Kumar (Pleasance, 7.15pm★★★★) and Liam Williams (Three Sisters, 11.30pm ★★★★). Kumar, whose considerable intelligence is always on display, but whose gags sometimes don’t match up, has found his groove. He deftly unpicks left and right with equal glee — mocking commentators who despair at political correctness, but also withering the hapless left and the hopeless Labour leadership candidates. Big gags and big ideas in equal measure.
Williams is less sure of himself. His anger is anguish — at one point he beats his forehead with the microphone, drawing blood, as he battles with the apathy that underpins his beliefs and those of his generation. His passion, unusually and expertly, is mixed with artful irony — and he switches seamlessly between the two.
Still with the passion, there’s Bridget Christie (Stand, 11am ★★★, returning to the festival that changed her life when it gave her final show the Foster’s Comedy award and prevented her attempt to retire. She still has the feminist fire of that show, but sometimes struggles with audience expectation — as if she’s double-checking her own thinking. Raw like grazed skin.
Sketch and character comedy continues its unexpected resurgence. Joseph Morpurgo (Pleasance, 8.15pm ★★★★) deserves some sort of award for level of effort. He’s worked through hours of Desert Island Discs to create his own encounter with Kirsty Young. Sometimes it’s deliberately clunky, as when she introduces him, other times breathtakingly tight, as when she lists better performers than him, smoothly working her way down from movie stars to vegetables. His discs, all selected for cheesy covers and stupid names, create a narrative with a beautiful twist — but his rapping of golf instructions over a grime beat stands alone.
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As smart, if not more so, there’s The Pin (Pleasance, 7pm ★★★★). Ben Ashenden and Alex Owen’s absurdist deconstruction of the sketch show is masterful. They’re baffled, they claim, by the bizarre situations of sketch comedy, and tear the form to pieces to prove it, delivering skits again and again with missing characters, alternative endings and, as a finale, four versions of themselves battling with the same lines. Ionesco with better gags.
Minor Delays (Gilded Balloon, 4.15pm ★★★) suffer a little in comparison. The plainly dressed trio’s simple yet twisted skits would prove a revelation in less imaginative years, and they’re a long way from the tedium of tiresome troupes such as Late Night Gimp Fight.
Elsewhere, storytellers rule — from the quasi-surreal to the curiously heartwarming. Mike Wozniak (Three Sisters, 1.15pm ★★★) delighted two years ago with his demented light entertainer on the verge of a nervous breakdown. This time, he’s back as himself, and the difference isn’t immediately obvious. His tortured story — accidentally packing an Edinburgh cat into his boot after the last festival and trying to find its owner — may feature fewer celebrities, but his suppressed rage, echoing John Cleese’s underrated headmaster in the 1986 film Clockwise, is as joyous as before.
Sofie Hagen (Liquid Room, 7.10pm ★★★★) cleaned up in last year’s Edinburgh rap battles between comedians, destroying a cocky Jeff Leach in a video that should be your next YouTube search. This year, the Danish stand-up is playing it a little more vulnerable. Her show is rooted in her teenage love for Westlife, and the resulting outrageous fan fiction, but it also touches on self-harm, petty theft and depression. Despite that, it’s a charming show, if littered, like her rapping, with unexpected filth.
Brett Goldstein (Pleasance, 9.30pm ★★★★) does himself no favours with his show title: Burning Man promises a tale of his adventures at the wild outdoor festival that’s the idiot crusties’ nirvana du jour. Fortunately, Goldstein really focuses on the midlife crisis that inspired him — his mother asked what his stand-up was actually for. The drug routines are slightly dreary, but there’s a nice meshing of Jimmy Savile and Dapper Laughs that somehow manages to exonerate Mr Laughs.
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Just feet away, there’s a promising debut from Pierre Novellie (Pleasance, 9.30pm ★★★), a burly Franco-Italian-South African who grew up on the Isle of Wight and builds his show around the resulting cultural differences. It’s wry, confident observational comedy, his finest touches being some well-crafted, hilarious routines about the spread of Christianity in Scandinavia. Seriously.
There are some weaker shows. Ed Byrne (Gilded Balloon, 9pm ★★★) is one of the finest stand-ups we have. This is not his finest show. It feels phoned in. Poor Juliet Meyers (Counting House, 1.15pm ★★) delivers with all the energy she has, but seems a little out of her depth. She’s clearly a strong writer — she’s one of Sarah Millican’s team. Perhaps she should just play to those strengths.