The Crimes of Pete

It draws ever closer

bruceonthefringe 2026, Comedy, Comic theatre, Edinburgh Fringe 2026 Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Just a week to go now! The poster boards are going up everywhere and this afternoon I was handed a flyer! Yes, the earliest ever. To be fair I was dawdling as I passed the Pleasance Courtyard as they have boards outside listing all the shows in all of their venues, a lady was obviously making some content with her phone by one of the boards….I was nosey, she was lovely, A Better Memory has been added to my pile of possibilities. But what of my certainties?

Hooray, the ridiculously talented Voloz Collective are back again, another double bill, REDACTED: The Cover-up of a Cover-up of a Cover-up and the brilliant The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much. I’ll be kicking off my Fringe with REDACTED, yay, and ending my first day yelling “Ya die, ya die, ya die!” at someone called Darren (if you know you know). My second day starts with another promising production The Crimes of Pete and finishes with Hudson Hughes: At Your Service which I’m confident will bookend the day very nicely. Friday will start with the return of Tom Neenan, it’s so important to start your Fringe well, you know. At least, I’m pretty damned certain these will all be great, not sure about the others, time to see if my Fringe-dar is still in working.

How to start your Fringe well

Wonderfully silly and totally Fringe Will BF is back with space epic Moon Team IIIV again, no doubt he’s most likely made a few changes since last August (I wonder how Swimothy is getting on). There’s also new show Will & Noah: Dinner Dinner Chicken Winner with Noah Geelan, oh yes, I’ll be seeing that for sure, loved them together last year. Ironing Board Man is back for a third year, an 80’s action movie homage with an excellent soundtrack and more ironing boards than you’d ever ordinarily see at once; but I’ve seen it twice already, so it’s the new show Jody Kamali: This Is My Dad that I quite fancy seeing, hmmm.

My Fringe-dar favours these

One return that I can’t decide whether to see is Jeremy Lion, some things are best left as memories. He was achingly funny the first couple of times I saw him, but the third time was not as good, that was, oh, fifteen or so years ago! To go or not to go? [Edit. Turns out its cancelled, debate over!] No such question about Thom Tuck’s latest theatrical outing The Wolf of Poyais, and, of course, the Tuck has two more shows (and maybe the odd other thing, too), a WIP stand-up show and a chat show, huh, if he announces who the guests will be each day, maybe.

The Tuck, a most august institution

It’s very late again. Toodles!

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!