So many shows, so little time. After three weeks of the Edinburgh Fringe I’ve seen more live comedy than many see in a lifetime. Some bad, some good, some absolutely fabulous. And now the best of the bunch have been shortlisted for the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Award, previously won by Baby Reindeer's Richard Gadd, Netflix star Hannah Gadsby and film and TV regular Tim Key. It feels impossible to predict a winner of the Taffner Family Best Show £10,000 prize from the eight nominees below, but, heck, I’ll try.
At the start of the Fringe I noted how many stand-ups were talking about brushes with death. This trend has continued. John Tothill’s This Must Be Heaven (Pleasance, five stars) tells the vivid story, among other things, of how the dandyish stand-up nearly died of an “obliterated” appendix. If he had gone to A&E 24 hours later he would be in a box, not performing in a shoebox-sized venue.
