Tarang Hardikar is a gentle soul, who talks a lot about his inner monologue and growing up in Pune in India, where he was a little boy lost in his own world, who loved to create pillow forts and do mathematics.

In If I’m Not Wrong, which had a debut run at the Edinburgh Fringe last month, Hardikar muses about seemingly disparate things – an encounter with an immigration officer, his inability to draw a straight line and the origin of coconuts among them. He even philosophises a little: “No one would have paid attention to Schrödinger’s cockroach.” He’s not wrong.

Chris Cantrill is one half of the delightfully mad sketch duo The Delightful Sausage alongside Amy Gledhill, who have rather set up camp in the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, The Delightful Sausage having been nominated for best show in 2019 and 2022, and then Gledhill winning best show in 2024. Now Cantrill  – also previously nominated in 2024 – completes the set by winning with his solo show, Rewilding. And deservedly so.

Tom Read Wilson ★★★★

Gilded Balloon Museum

Matt Forde
Pleasance Courtyard ★★★★
Matt Forde is one of those comics Fringe-goers can rely to present a well-prepared and funny show, and Project Holy Moly is no exception. It’s perhaps not his strongest offering to date but that can be forgiven, as much of it must have been written since Andy Burnham was chosen as leader of the Labour Party and moved into Downing Street in July.

Susie McCabe

Assembly George Square  ★★★★

Max Fulham’s Monkey Business ★★★★

Gilded Balloon Teviot

Olga Koch comes bounding on to the stage and tells us she needs a time machine to tell her story, to prevent someone being born – at which point a reference to a certain happening in Nazareth 2026 years ago flashes up on the onstage screens. It’s the first of several neat gags – many of them throwaway – in which she provides the set-up, and the payoff follows on the screens.

Ania Magliano has built a solid body of work over the past few years with her thoughtful, self-reflective shows (gaining an Edinburgh Comedy Award nomination on the way), and a following boosted by her appearances on Taskmaster and SNL UK.

After her television sojourn she’s back to stand-up with Peach Fuzz (which I saw at Soho Theatre), another walk through her life, this time her relationship with her body.

Lenny Henry’s latest foray into live performance takes him back to his comedy roots, after several years doing theatre and television work. Still at Large, which I saw at Soho Theatre Walthamstow, is part stand-up, part storytelling as he talks about his life and career.

Wanda Sykes is a comic, actress and writer who has written for Chris Rock and appeared in Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Good Fight and, more latterly, Netflix series The Upshaws. But standup fans know her for her on-the-money political humour, and in this Netflix special she doesn’t disappoint.