◆ Trending: Five big name comedians playing the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year
The programme launch is still a couple of months away but hundreds of shows are already on sale. Here are five it might be wise to snap up tickets for sooner rather than later.
Dara O’briain: My Life Is a Work in Progress: Star comedians often come to Edinburgh to try out new material that will end up being toured around the world - and that’s what former Mock the Week host Dara O’briain is doing. He’s at the Assembly Rooms from August 12-25.
Nish Kumar: Nish, Don’t Kill My Vibe: Another work in progress at this year’s Fringe comes from political comedian Nish Kumar who, in this election year, promises to ‘kill the mood even further’.
See him at the tiny Monkey Barrel Comedy Club from August 2-15 at the civilised time of 2.50pm.
Rose Matafeo: On and On and On: This New Zealand comedian was catapulted to fame when she won the Edinburgh Comedy Award for her show Horndog. Her new show is based on feeling “like you're meeting yourself again and again in a bad way” and is at the Pleasance Courtyard from August 9-25.
Sara Pascoe: I Am A Strange Gloop: The Great British Sewing Bee host is back in Edinburgh ‘after having two babies and very little sleep’, likening the stage of her life to caterpillars that ‘completely breaks down into goo before they become butterflies’. At the Monkey Barrel from August 1-9.
Bobby Davro: Everything Is Funny...if You Can Laugh At It: A real blast from the past, Bobby Davro was one of the most famous people in Britain in the 1980s with a string of Saturday night primetime shows. Last year he played a few shows in Edinburgh and sold them out, so now he’s back for a full run at the pub Frankenstein from August 2-25.