Edinburgh Fringe Comedy reviews: Alice Snedden: Highly Credible | Best in Class | Lil Wenker: Bangtail | Mark Silcox: Women Only | Steen Raskopoulos: Friendly Stranger

A lost car is the starting point for Starstruck co-writer Alice Snedden’s masterclass in laughs, kicking off our latest batch of Fringe comedy reviews. Words by Ashley Davies, Claire Smith and Jay Richardson

Alice Snedden: Highly Credible | Contributed

COMEDY

Alice Snedden: Highly Credible ★★★★

Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) until 25 August

Have you ever been so determined to be certain about something that even when doubt and doubters tug at your hem you double down on your opinion? Alice Snedden’s been wrong before – with dramatic results. She once accidentally let a Christian fundamentalist, hell-bent on disruption, into the auditorium of an important play, but in Highly Credible she tells a story of a time when she was sure she was right.

Like many other women, she’s been so busy trying not to turn into her mother that she didn’t notice she’d done something her father did: she lost her car. She reported it to the police, firmly believing it had been stolen. On paper, the start of this story might not seem all that compelling, but she takes us on a wheezingly funny journey of twists and turns, and at times we find ourselves wondering whether she is a credible witness after all.

Along the way, Snedden – who co-wrote and co-directed Starstruck with her friend, Rose Matafeo – treats us some near-perfect comedy that swings between faux solipsism (her job, when she goes to her parents’ house, is “vibing”, she says) and pretending to be self-aggrandising. It is really clever comedy disguised as casual chat and observations, with just the right level of self-deprecation.

She’s also got some great stuff about the brutality of an all-girls’ school, where “your best friend is also your worst enemy”, and where a lad from the toughest boys’ school wouldn’t last a day. She was only bullied on account of her appearance and personality, she jokes, but Snedden is clearly an alpha, and her control of this furnace of a room is absolute.

It’s no exaggeration to say that she’s one of the funniest people in Edinburgh this month, and she makes this look like a doddle. Ashley Davies

COMEDY

Best in Class ★★★★

Laughing Horse @ The Three Sisters (Venue 272) until 25 August

Best in Class is a fantastic crowd-funded initiative which brings working-class comics to the Fringe; it won the Edinburgh Comedy awards panel prize in 2022. This year it has recruited eight new voices, who provide a rotating line-up for each nightly show at the Free Festival. First up is Amanda Hursey, a Glasgow girl who quickly warms up the crowd. Hursey has a great story about getting arrested for something which should not really be regarded as a crime. She quickly identifies an ex-cop on the second row – something that becomes a gift for all the comics on the bill.

Next up is Kelly Rickard, who is Welsh but who lives in the North East. Rickard has excellent delivery and a likeable, slightly eccentric manner. She has a very funny song about dating posh boys at university and discovering that they are not really all that. Finally is Sean Gorman from Salisbury. He is an assured stage presence and ventures into some personal territory about having fertility problems as well as engaging in knockabout fun with the crowd.

The other comics who will feature on the bills during this year’s Fringe are Maxine Wade, Tasha Cluskey, Garrie Grubb, Louis Etienne and Sam Ayinde. In a world where it is increasingly difficult for performers to afford the cost of staging a Fringe show this is a life-changing opportunity for some and the quality of the acts on the bill is excellent. By the time comics get into the main venues they often have management, agents and PR people working behind the scenes so this is genuinely the place to catch new talent. It is also a fun, free night out: although people are lining up after the gig to make donations. Claire Smith

COMEDY

Lil Wenker: Bangtail ★★★

Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) until 25 August

An identity crisis masquerading as clown comedy, Lil Wenker's alter-ego Bangtail is the baddest man in Texas, a rootin' tootin' cowboy who intimidates those he encounters into obeying his commands. Growling instructions at the audience with macho self-satisfaction, demanding they play supporting characters in his swaggering display of braggadocio, he can't be “got”, not even by machine-gun fire. 

Lil Wenker: Bangtail | Contributed

Taking his name from his lust for chasing women, Bangtail ticks off every cliché and convention of the Spaghetti western. Wenker keeps the interaction easy to follow and daft, even if occasional attempts from an audience member to stray from the script brings the whole enterprise temporarily grinding to a halt (Wenker perpetually restarts the scene until they play their part to her satisfaction.)

At a certain point though, Wenker sheds the outsize persona and becomes instead the paler character of a male accountant in the modern American Midwest, his behaviour nevertheless looping with and echoing that of Bangtail. Ultimately, she cannot sustain this either and shares more of herself, the difficulties of finding expression for that self in male-coded norms a source of some struggle. Her weary questioning of her cast, trying to find what gives them fulfilment, just about keeps the laughs from flagging in this curio of an hour. Jay Richardson

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COMEDY

Mark Silcox: Women Only ★★★

PBH’s Free Fringe @ Voodoo Rooms (Venue 68) until 18 August

There is dry delivery and then there is Mark Silcox, whose comedic style is as desiccated as a vast empty desert. As an actor and comic, his ability to blend weirdly into the background has earned him parts in a number of TV shows whenever an air of inscrutable wisdom is required. 

On the Free Fringe Silcox is renowned for off-the-wall comedy lectures in the character of a kindly but hopeless academic. Here he tackles that old comedy chestnut: the differences between men and women, which – this being 2024 – is now subject to a series of disclaimers. 

Using slides of eggs and sperm, pictures of ladybirds and extracts from EastEnders, Silcox attempts to establish and then resolve the differences between the sexes by offering an apology to women on behalf of weak men. There are plenty of big laughs, as Silcox advances theories which include tips about suitable jobs for beta males and detailed advice about how to avoid conflict at all costs. He is supremely relaxed on stage, and even a technical meltdown with the PowerPoint is mined for laughs. Perhaps it is intentional - with a performer this delightfully laid-back it is hard to tell. Claire Smith

COMEDY

Steen Raskopoulos: Friendly Stranger ★★★

Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) until 25 August

There aren’t many acts who do what likeable Australian Steen Raskopoulos does: sketch comedy that relies on audience participation. Fortunately, he has got a sixth sense when it comes to picking punters who are happy to go along with his daft ideas, and there’s also the odd moment when we are all encouraged to join in – and do so gladly.

One of the most successful sketches involves Raskopoulos delivering film reviews in the chanting style of a Greek Orthodox priest, while another plays with cinematic themes in a different way, mimicking badly dubbed crime movies. The latter heavily relies on the willingness of one audience member to “yes and…” the scenario, and there’s another one that requires even greater levels of bravery. To say any more would spoil the surprise.

Raskopoulos is also good at introducing pathos into his themes, such as the recurring story of a man who, fresh out of prison, encounters absurd challenges to his fresh start. There’s a lot of detail in the sketches, with one or two perhaps being a little convoluted and reliant on his admittedly great mime skills. But overall, it’s an exciting hour from an enthusiastic improviser who takes risks but clearly doesn’t want anyone to feel bullied. Ashley Davies