Jake Lambert, Pleasance Courtyard ★★★★
Jake Lambert warms up the audience by describing how much he enjoyed lockdown (despite a relationship break-up), and he suspects that football players enjoyed playing for a season without spectators too – “Whose job wouldn't be improved by removing thousands of people calling you a wanker?”
Hal Cruttenden, Pleasance Courtyard ★★★★
Randy Feltface, Assembly George Square ★★★★
Ania Magliano, Pleasance Courtyard ★★★★
Ania Magliano is debuting at the Fringe with Absolutely No Worries If Not, an hour that explores her sexual awakening. She has only recently realised she's bisexual, which means she still likes straight culture. “I think All Bar One is a great space,” she say drily.
Sara Barron is known for her no-holds-barred comedy style – or “American energy” as another mum at her son’s school calls it – but in her fast-paced new show she pushes even further, addressing as she does her fertility treatment and a miscarriage.
Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Monkey Barrel ★★★★
Wearing a heavily sequinned leotard - she thought this was how we’d all dress after “living in trackies during lockdown” - Kiri Pritchard-McLean wants to address some very serious subjects, such as racism, imperialism and white privilege. But first she wants to deliver some funnies, and there are lots of them in Home Truths, a show bursting with energy and ideas.
Anna Mann – actress, singer, welder (you’ve got to have a back-up in this business, darling) – is the monstrous creation of Colin Hoult.
Tiff Stevenson doesn’t like labels, and is particularly irritated by how the once mildly mocking insult “Karen” is now just another misogynistic slur. So she invented a label for herself, Sexy Brain, which is the title of her show, and over the hour she explains how she arrived at it
Sikisa is a new name on the comedy scene, but trust me you'll hearing and seeing a lot more of the south Londoner with Barbadian roots. Twerk in Progress, her in-progress version of her debut show Life of the Party, is a winning mixture of autobiography and social comment.
Joe Lycett’s career was on an upward trajectory when he took on hosting duties on The Great British Sewing Bee, and the crafting show delivered a whole new audience for his live comedy. But anybody thinking that his sweet-natured wit was all there was to Lycett might be taken aback by some of his stand-up material.