T O P T I P S | W E E K 1 F I V E Admirable People Heroes @ The Hive, 1–25 Aug, 6pm, £5. Phil says goodbye to Edinburgh forever. Prepare to hear hard truths about his past, the industry and laugh along the way.
show for the adults, as he gives his comedic take on everything from Love Island to Westminster in his trademark anarchic style, with different guests nightly.
PHIL ELLIS: AU REVOIR
ROISIN AND CHIARA: GET NUPTY Heroes @ The Hive, 1–25 Aug (not 10, 20), 6.20pm, £8 (£5–6). A brand-new hour of improvising genius from cult- in-the-making duo Róisín and Chiara. Expect a whirlwind of synchronised, audience-tickling, surreal character sketch, mash-up musical madness . . . and a wedding.
TOM ROSENTHAL: MANHOOD Pleasance Courtyard, 3–25 Aug (not 13), 6.30pm, £11.50–£14 (£10.50– £13.50). Previews 31 Jul–2 Aug, £6. Let the chap from Friday Night Dinner and Plebs tell you the story of how he spent his life trying to avenge the theft of his foreskin.
7PM
IVO GRAHAM: THE GAME OF LIFE Pleasance Courtyard, 3–25 Aug, 7pm, £8.50–£12 (£7.50–£11). Previews 31 Jul–2 Aug, £7. More hilariously anxious blather from one of the most hilariously anxious blatherers in the business.
ROSIE JONES: BACKWARD Pleasance Courtyard, 3–25 Aug (not 5, 12), 7pm, £7.50–£10 (£6.50–£9). Previews 31 Jul–2 Aug, £6. After a sell-out debut hour, Jones explores the hilarious difficulties of navigating the world whilst being the only disabled, gay, northern comedian in the Edinburgh village.
DESIREE BURCH: DESIREE’S
BASIL BRUSH: UNLEASHED COMING EARLY!
Underbelly Bristo Square, 3–25 Aug, 6.45pm, £12–£13 (£11–£12). Previews 31 Jul–2 Aug, £7. Basil makes his much-anticipated Fringe debut in a Heroes @ The Hive, 1–25 Aug (not 13, 20), 7.40pm, £10 (£7). She was born late, bloomed late and always missed the bus. But a compelling shift has the
F E S T I VA L C O M E DY | Top Tips
P H O T O
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K A R L A G O W L E T T
HARRIET BRAINE
Five people I most admire? This is very easy, thank you, The List. In my show Les Admirables, I happen to focus on five amazing women from the history of science. I talk about a lot of other admirable people too, including members of my family, but who cares? The only living one out of the five is Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, and still the only woman to have completed a solo space flight. Then we have the fab dead four: Maria Sabina, Ada Lovelace, rear-admiral Grace Hopper, and Hedy Lamarr. All four were brilliant scientists, but they had trouble being taken seriously during their lifetimes and / or since, basically because they had boobs.
Lamarr in particular, despite
being a pioneering wireless communications physicist, was cursed with a particularly nice pair. Sabina’s life is a sad and familiar tale of indigenous cultural and medical practices being trampled on and exploited by – guess who? – a bunch of rich white guys.
Speaking of rich white guys, Lord Byron spawned the most famous of the five, Ada Lovelace, who wrote the first ever computer program. Personally, I think it’s even more impressive that the computer she programmed never actually got built. Being so frustratingly ahead of her time (and having Byron for a father) it’s no wonder she drank quite heavily (allegedly). Hopper is probably my favourite one. She was so insanely talented that despite being too tiny to join the US Navy during WWII, and never actually going to sea, she was, without any doubt, the best IT guy in the galaxy. She has nine military medals to prove it, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom given posthumously by Barack Obama. What a babe.
Gilded Balloon at Old Tolbooth Market, 3–25 Aug (not 12), 6pm, £6 in advance or donations. Previews 31 Jul–2 Aug, £4.
74 THE LIST FESTIVAL 31 Jul–7 Aug 2019
fresh-faced / world-weary comedian mischievously changing up the tempo.
JEN BRISTER: UNDER PRIVILEGE Monkey Barrel, 3–25 Aug (not 12), 7.45pm, £7–£8 (£6–£7). Previews 1 & 2 Aug, £5. Brister has it all: a wife, kids, a house and a job she loves (sometimes) so what does she have left to moan about? Best come and find out.
ADAM RICHES: THE BEAKINGTON TOWN HALL MURDERS
Pleasance Courtyard, 3–26 Aug, 7.50pm, £11–£14 (£10–£13). Previews 31 Jul–2 Aug, £8. An ingenious, interactive comedy whodunnit as one of you lot (the audience) is a murderer. Of some tortoises . . .
8PM
GARRY STARR CONQUERS TROY Underbelly Cowgate, 3–25 Aug (not 12, 19), 8pm, £11.50–£12.50 (£10.50– £11.50). Previews 1 & 2 Aug, £6.50. Comic wunderkind Garry Starr delivers another anarchic drama masterclass to remember as he delves deep into his Greek ancestry to enlighten us all with the ancient art of Pretendism.
P H O T O : C H R S G R A C E
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VOLDEMORT AND THE TEENAGE HOGWARTS MUSICAL PARODY Before Voldemort became The Dark Lord, he was regular young Tom Riddle (for a guy Who Must Not Be Named, he certainly seems to have a lot of them). As we discover Tom’s early dabblings with snakes and Hufflepuff girls, the folk behind Baby Wants Candy and Thrones! The Musical deliver their second helping of pun-packed Potter-prequel parodying. Assembly George Square Studios, 2–26 Aug (not 14), 5pm, £13–£15. Previews 31 Jul & 1 Aug, £10.