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The joy of the fringe is it’s unjuried, so anyone can take a show there. With over 100 venues to choose from, as a performer, the fringe is the perfect place to try out new material and showcase what you’ve got. (Don’t get caught up in the ‘fringe dream’ though – there are 20,000 performances over the 3 weeks, which means an average audience of about 5!)

The tricky bit is, as a punter, what to see! You can discover some amazing talent…and a lot of rubbish. Well, I thought I’d make it easy for you by giving my top 5 acts from the Fringe…from the 5 days I was there!

I’ve narrowed it down to acts that spend the rest of the year touring, so even if the Fringe isn’t your thing or you’re not there, you may get a chance to catch them near you sometime, or just sound cool when someone mentions the show and you say “oh I’ve heard of them, Tom said they’re awesome. Oh, you haven’t met my friend Tom? He’s amazing, he has a chicken and completed his cycling proficiency when he was only 9.”

Anyway, here it is, my Five Fringe Favourites…

The Boy With Tape on his Face
I saw this briefly at 1am during a stand up set at the Gilden Balloon and it is genius, alternative comedy at its best. In the show, Sam Wills fills an hour without uttering a word (mostly because he has tape on his face.) Instead he plays with objects, music and audience members, getting people up on stage to dance, dress up and act as props in his next absurd trick. Really imaginative physical comedy. No word on whether Sam’s sticking around in England or heading back to his home town, but keep an eye on his website for more

Dead Cat Bounce
There are a lot of musical comedians about, Boothby Graffoe, Bill Bailey even groups like Flight of the Conchords, Tripod and Axis of Awesome, but Dead Cat Bounce are an international rock & roll comedy supergroup…I KNOW! The first comedy band I’ve seen and it was incredible. For an hour, these guys played every genre of music with skilled musicianship and even more skilled comedic timing. The lyrics were hilarious, the performance was hilarious and a ginger man in leopard-print-leggings playing drums was…strangely arousing. The guys are from Ireland, but are constantly gigging all over the place so check out their next one here.

Hit Me! The Life & Rhymes of Ian Dury
Not knowing a lot about Ian Dury or being able to name more than a couple of songs by the Blockheads, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this show but I was so glad that I caught it while I was there. The show is an incredible piece of theatre laced with high energy musical performances, comedy and emotion. Behind the perfect portrayal of Dury on stage, the two actors invite you into an extraordinary story into the brutal reality of his private life and of the relationship between Ian Dury and his tour manager, minder and friend Fred ‘Spider’ Rowe with some interesting and funny stories along the way. (And it turned out, unknowingly, I am actually an avid fan of Ian Dury and the Blockheads!) The show is now on tour, so be sure to check out when it’s close to you here – well worth checking out.

Potted Panto
The ‘Potted’ franchise has become an absolute for me at the Fringe with ‘Potted Potter’ and ‘Potted Pirates’ quickly becoming festival favourites for me in previous years. Dan and Jeff (from CBBC) cram all the classic pantomimes into 70 minutes…in the middle of the summer, with Jeff playing all the leading roles and Dan covering the ugly sisters, the seven dwarves and most impressively depicts an epic battle between King Rat and Dick Wittington’s cat all on his own. This was the funniest thing I’ve seen all Fringe and I would recommend it to anyone. Perhaps it was because I hadn’t read the Harry Potter books or because pirates with beards scare me a little bit, but this was to me their best show by far. Their website states that they’re in London over Christmas so definitely keep an eye out for it. (’Dan’ also looks a lot like my chicken…spooky)

The Blues Brothers Banned
What can I say any more than this is the best show in the world ever. Without any bias at all, I can honestly say, if you haven’t seen this show, you haven’t lived. Mostly because one of the lead singers is the sexiest thing ever to grace this planet, but partly because the 10 strong line up produce some incredible, high-energy, funkifying, soulful, rhythm and blues…and it’s pretty funny too. They’re constantly gigging so keep checking up on the website or join the facebook to find out more.

Cheeky Extra Five Stand-Up Favourites…

Also saw some great stand-up while I was out there, so be sure to keep an eye on:

Daniel Kitson

Tony Law

Paul Foot

Daniel Atkinson

Pete Johansson