Pay What You Can

Possibilities of laughter

bruceonthefringe 2026, Comedy, Edinburgh Fringe 2026, Edinburgh Fringe Programme, Free Fringe, Pay What You Can, Pay What You Want Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

I’ve been away to Yorkshireland again, got back Sunday evening, a very drizzly drive up, but hey, the rain was needed, and looking at the forecast, the rain gods are getting some practice in ready for August! If you’re coming to Edinburgh for the Fringe don’t forget your brolly, and don’t go leaving it in a pub like I almost did Sunday evening; well, after that long drive I needed a drink and it just so happened that Louis Crosland was playing in George IV Bar. It’s a nice enough bar but it’s very much a place folk eat then head off elsewhere, few stay longer. Louis will be back there on Friday evening, then, contrary to any websites, he’ll be playing in Whistlebinkies with whoever he can round-up at short notice. That’s my Friday evening sorted.

Yes, very nice, moose, but what about Comedy? Well, there’s a lot of it, and it does seem like prices have increased plenty. Yes, I know there’s plenty of good reasons, I get it, but I also want to see shows, whittling them down to even fewer is really hard. And all the lovely flyerers, what to say to them? Yes, that sounds great but which other show should I drop from my list in order to afford it? Actually, that could be quite interesting, kinda mean but a fun experiment, hmmm.

Surprisingly, I have only Free Fringe show cut-outs from Comedy, unsurprisingly one is John Robertson’s latest stand-up show; and there’s another magic show by David Alnwick, like why? Why isn’t that one also listed in Cabaret and Variety with the other two? Any logic there?! Oh yeah, on C&V, I missed mentioning (overlooked, it was a double-sided cut-out) Bad Clowns and Good Friends, their late night show with various guest comedians is back at Eve, I might get round to popping in this time round, I kept saying I would last year but,!? (it’s in the Cowgate, not exactly a tricky location)

The majority of my Comedy possibilities are the hybrid PWYC and PWYW, take a gamble that you’ll get in without a ticket and pay when you leave. Two shows I won’t just chance are Ed Byrne: Work In Progress and Luke Rollason: Alas! (WIP), both short runs and no doubt will sell out. John-Luke Roberts and Nish Kumar have full Fringe runs at Monkey Barrel so I reckon I’ll be fine seeing them early on. Then there’s the ticketed shows I’d like to see, well, some only if they get listed on the Half Price Hut. Unfortunately way too many of my choices clashed timewise, so they wouldn’t all fit during the preview period (oh, a mini rant about that at some point).

I haven’t been the forthcoming with my choices in this post, so I’ll put in some pics of my possibilities. Next time, more on the Comedy section, the shows I’m definitely going to see.

Toodle pip!

Too many possibilities for one moose!

bruceonthefringe 2026, Comic theatre, Edinburgh Fringe 2026, Edinburgh Fringe Programme, Fringe tickets, Pay What You Can, Pay What You Want, Theatre Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Later than I intended (it’s been another gorgeous day outside) but here’s a few musings on what’s caught my eye in the Theatre section of the Edinburgh Fringe 2026 programme. Oh crikey, there’s a lot of cuttings, the majority will be bin bound (especially once I’ve taken my scissors to Comedy), but I prefer having groupings of faint possibilities that can be discarded than wondering if I should have another look through the programme, if it’s not been cut out, tough (besides, there’s always more chances of consideration once the Fringe is underway).

The classics, kinda. Five hovering around Shakespeare, I’ve often enjoyed these sorts of productions; two have puppetry as a keyword, the whimsy in me is a sucker for that stuff; and 11½ Angry Men, just because I saw Guy Masterton’s 2003 comedians production of 12 Angry Men, mind, only a preview ticket. Prices are certainly going up now, but that’s partly because the booking fee is now included in the ticket price, so no getting annoyed at the extra fee, but hey, if you buy more than six tickets at a time then you’ll pay slightly less as there’s still a cap of £9 booking fee on a single order (slight whoop there). Still, at £25.00 within a bunch of tickets, nope, that’s two other shows I can see.

I always have a pile of Half Price Hut hopefuls to keep an eye out for once the Hut is up and running. Some of the pile will be potential previews too, but as the preview prices are generally just the first Wednesday and Thursday (Friday was a preview day until very recently, damn them), I can’t see as many as I used to. The Half Price Hut is once again operating from the Fringe Box Office and so shuts at six in the evening, still bloody stupid, I say (I’ve done a full blown rant on this before, it irks me).

The vast majority of tickets in the Theatre section are set prices, checking through I’ve no Free Fringe possibles, oops, one! It jumps between categories a lot, this is a Theatre year, that perennial A Young Man Dressed as a Gorilla….17, as usual, one performance only, on Tuesday 18th. Could this be the year I see it?! I have just two Pay What You Want and two Pay What You Can in my possibilities. Quick recap, PWYW gives one ticket price to buy in advance to guarantee entry while PWYC gives four price options to pay in advance. A word of advice/warning, if you’ve bought a ticket in advance to one of these shows you’ll probably find yourself apologetically bleating “honest, I bought a ticket” as you exit past the bucket.

There’ll always a few shows that aren’t on until the final week, that’s a separate pile of it’s own. No need to think about them just yet, and a lot can happen before the last week of Fringe. There are some possibilities that don’t fit any where particular in my head, they’re probably looking at each other thinking, how did I get stuck in a pile beside you?! And I seem to have created a pile of best publicity pictures, when I’ve reached for the scissors at first glance; yeah, Film Noir Frog is very appealing (come on, it’s a frog, they’re always great).

Yeah, these six shows all have a high chance of getting on my calendar; and then there’s five absolute definites, oo, I’m looking forward to these…

REDACTED: The Cover-up of a Cover-up of a Cover-up is the new show from the brilliant Voloz Collective, physical theatre at its very best. Their previous Fringe shows were among the best of all Fringes for me, really (and they’re performing The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much again this year, honestly, I could be tempted to see it again, I love it’s style and sass). That most august of Fringe institutions Thom Tuck is playing The Wolf of Poyais, nuff said, I’m going. The Crimes of Pete is the latest play by Hughie Shepherd-Cross, I thoroughly enjoyed his previous three plays, don’t let me down Hughie! The creepy, unnerving Flabbergast Theatre are back again, this time with Endgame by Samuel Beckett, always a mesmeric watch this theatre company. And Top Gunchained because Yippee Ki Yay was so damned awesome, both years (different actors) I saw it.

No picture of all my other possibilities in the Theatre section, too many will have to go unseen, and after all, there’s no science to how I picked them, just my Fringe-dar twitching. Next time the Comedy section of the Edinburgh Fringe 2026 programme. You have been warned.

Toodle pip!