PRESS RELEASE for immediate release May 2025
Buxton Fringe’s comedy section is bigger than ever this year with some 60 entries, many of which involve audience participation. Be warned.
There is a glitzy musical comedy debut from Anna Hale: Control Freak - 60 minutes of vocal pyrotechnics - plus more music from award-winning singer and multi-instrumentalist Julia Knight with Jest Julia: Songs of Joy and Justice.
He was on Britain’s Got Talent, now he is at the Fringe: Bennet Kavanagh: Work In Progress (In C Major) promises a unique and charmingly chaotic musical. Also in town is Fringe favourite, the usually sold-out Totally Improvised Musical.
The party continues as drag act Angela Bra returns with Secret Diary of a Bingo Call Girl and Crudi Dench, star of the award-winning Drag Queens Vs Vampires, needs some support with her telly career in Someone Help Her!
Fans of audience participation should seek out Black Liver’s Game Show Show or for an interactive ghostly comedy, Daniel Nicholas: Haunting In The Arcade. Meanwhile anyone game for putting their love life up for inspection should attend Jesters Dublin’s Telling Tinder Tales. Fringe-goers will need to join in with The Elephant In The Room from Leamprov as the performers admit that no-one knows what this family-friendly show is about - cue plenty of improv based on audience suggestions.
Definitely not for families is Sweet Production’s Imaginary Porno Charades: outrageous observations and porno puns, or the cult Late Night Dirty Scrabble with Rob Rouse guaranteeing belly laughs.
Break out your doublets and hose! The Fringe Award-winning Impromptu Shakespeare returns with story and verse improvised in the moment to side-splitting comic effect. The history theme continues with Edy Hurst’s Wonderful Discoverie of Witches In The County Of Himself, a comedy about the Lancashire Witch Trials. Edy then heads to Ithaca in Pick Up Thy Bow and Swim! Oh Mighty King of Ithaca. There is also a comedy show about the Middle Ages; Luke Connell’s Bloody Marvellous is a comic tour of the medieval world featuring Eilmer the flying monk.
There is murder afoot in It’s Not Cluedo. Audiences have one hour to solve a murder in the company of Chris Neville-Smith, but maybe nothing amiss in Leslie Bloom’s No More Murders In The Village. Audiences solved the mystery last year, so what now?
Anyone who fancies a stroll round Buxton should check out Steve Goldman’s The Worst Record Covers In The World, a crazy selection of funny-peculiar record sleeves at various venues across the town. Alternatively, intrepid comedy-goers might want to take up an invitation to Hannah’s big goodbye party in The Beauty of Being Herd from award-winning Ruth Berkoff. Be prepared to live as a sheep...
For grown ups, there are loads of stats in MJ Hibbett’s Data and Doctor Doom featuring songs, jokes and slides. This year’s Fringe also sees the return of the ever-popular A Political Brunch from Jesters Dublin.
Those who cannot get enough should head for Underground’s Barrel of Laughs. This sell-out show featuring a selection of stand ups over three Friday nights is now in its 20th year and will take place at Underground’s new venue at the Working Men’s Club. Meanwhile Jesters Dublin are back with AComedyTapas, a fast-paced, mixed-bill show at Beer and Bean.
Fringe Marketing Officer Stephanie Billen says: "People can have a preconceived idea of Fringe comedy but this year’s offerings are intriguingly diverse with a streak of mayhem running through many of them. There is also lots of choice when it comes to family-friendly, X-rated or something in between."
There is plenty more comedy on offer at Buxton Fringe. Fringe goers are being advised to pick up a programme, see www.buxtonfringe.org.uk or download the free Buxton Fringe App.
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