ED2016 Comedy ED2016 Three To See ED2016 Week0 Edition

Three To See 2016: Unlikely topics for comedy

By Caro Moses | Published on Saturday 30 July 2016

ThreeWeeks Co-Editor Caro Moses helps you navigate the Festival with her Three To See tips. This time three comedy shows exploring unlikely topics.

John Hastings – Integrity | Pleasance Courtyard | 3-29 Aug
Just to be clear, it’s not the integrity element that I’m claiming is an unlikely topic for comedy. I mean, I am not saying for a moment that comedians don’t have integrity. What’s unlikely about this show is that John Hastings will be covering, amongst other things, the murder of his godmother, and yet, this is a comedy show. But I have every faith that he can be very, very funny, even against those odds.

Paul McMullan – Alcopop | Pleasance Courtyard | 3-28 Aug (pictured)
This sounds like a pretty grim story. Paul McMullan talks about his alcoholism, how he lost his job and his wife, and how he ended up homeless with three young children. Yet, not really surprisingly, this accomplished raconteur tells his fascinating story of coming up after hitting rock bottom with hilarious candour. This is his debut hour, and he’s not been doing stand-up for that long, but he’s already proving himself on the live circuit so I reckon he is one to watch.

Life And Death (But Mainly Death) | theSpace @ Symposium Hall | 5-27 Aug
Actual NHS doctor Phil Hammond has been a bit of a fixture for years and years now in the world of comedy TV and radio, and it’s not his first time in Edinburgh of course. He’s back this year for a full festival run of a show about – obviously – life and death, in which he ruminates on the death of his forbears, and his own death, asking the question of whether it’s possible not to kill yourself before your time, yet die gently when your time comes?

Photo: Steve Ullathorne