comedy reviews
Veronica Lee

Ahir Shah, Monkey Barrel

Ahir Shah is a fast talker, but then in Ends – which deservedly won best show in the Edinburgh Comedy Awards – he has a lot to say. It's a show about multiculturalism, family, identity, fitting in, and encompasses modern history on two continents, so he has a lot to pack in.

Veronica Lee

Janine Harouni, Pleasance Courtyard 

Veronica Lee

Olga Koch Monkey Barrel 

Olga Koch's opening segment deals with bisexuality and her first threesome in some decidedly evocative language. That's what turning 30 does for you, she suggests – allowing her to engage in a more adventurous attitude to life and a more sex-positive one to relationships.

Veronica Lee

Darran Griffiths, Pleasance Courtyard 

Lots of comics talk about sex in their shows but few do so with such charm and purpose as Darran Griffiths with Inconceivable, his debut hour.

Veronica Lee

Flat & the Curves, Pleasance Dome 

Flat & the Curves – Katy Baker, Charlotte Brooke, Issy Wroe Wright and Arabella Rodrigo – perform a gig-style musical comedy show with risqué material about what it means to be a modern woman. And there's a generous side helping about the inadequacy of men, too.

Veronica Lee

Rob Auton, Assembly @Roxy 

Rob Auton has previously done shows around a theme – the colour yellow, hair, the sky, to name a few - because, he says, he can become a little bit obsessed with a subject. Now, though, he wants to do his most personal show yet, hence The Rob Auton Show.

Veronica Lee

Amos Gill Gilded Balloon 

Veronica Lee

Krystal Evans, Monkey Barrel @The Hive 

Veronica Lee

Ania Magliano, Pleasance Courtyard

When Ania Magliano made her Fringe debut last year, her show was rightly garlanded with four- and five-star reviews. She sounded like an original voice on the comedy scene and this year her show, I Can’t Believe You’ve Done This, sold out its entire run before the festival opened.

Veronica Lee

Ed Byrne Assembly Rooms

Ed Byrne has frequently referenced his loved ones in previous shows but this new hour is one he would never wanted to have written, as it was prompted by the death of his younger brother, Paul, last year. Its title, Tragedy Plus Time, is taken from an aphorism attributed to Mark Twain about the definition of humour.