16 hours ago
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A Letter to Lyndon B Johnson or God: Whoever Reads This First
In cult clown duo Xhloe and Natasha’s two-hander, we are swiftly in the US of LBJ, Beatlemania and Tom Sawyer-style outdoor adventuring. The pair portray muddy-kneed boy scouts who, against a backdrop of chirping insects and with the sole prop of a tyre, recount their hijinks with an emotional impact that sneaks up on you. Read the review. Chris Wiegand
theSpace @ Niddry St, 2-23 August
Abby Wambaugh: The First 3 Minutes of 17 Shows
As directed by Lara Ricote, Abby Wambaugh’s show is a masterpiece of construction, an anthology of dotty creative ideas that resolves into an affecting story of the comic’s miscarriage and of the value of beginnings that never reach a middle and an end. Read the review. Brian Logan
Pleasance Courtyard, 12-25 August
Nina Conti: Whose Face Is It Anyway?
Conti’s signature trick is turning volunteers into human ventriloquist’s dummies and animating them in improvised scenes on stage. Her touring show reveals a master at work, elevating her brand of off-the-cuff voice-throwing and organised havoc to a state of near comedy grace. Read the review. BL
Underbelly, Bristo Square, 7-15 August
300 Paintings
The title of Sam Kissajukian’s show alludes to the surfeit of artwork that the former standup produced during his mental-health crisis. In a self-directed production, he talks us through his output with a slideshow. It’s a funny and fascinating study of the mysteries of the mind. Read the review. Mark Fisher
Summerhall, 31 July to 25 August
Nowhere
In an audacious avant garde solo show, with its multimedia depths of images, audio voiceovers, personal stories, song and dance, Khalid Abdalla asks where you belong when the country in which you were born or raised does not want you or has become too dangerous for you to stay. How does it feel to belong in Nowhere-land? Read the review. Arifa Akbar
Traverse, 12-24 August
Nick Mohammed is Mr Swallow: Show Pony
A deliriously enjoyable hour of comedy meets magic meets more of the real Mohammed than we’ve ever before seen on stage. He’s in character as his alter ego, the camp and bumptious northern know-it-all Mr Swallow, but it’s as if this were a coming out party for a comedian who has remained incognito until now. Read the review. BL
Playhouse, 22 August
Shamilton! The Improvised Hip-Hop Musical
An extension of the Baby Wants Candy! improvisation franchise, this show inspired by audience suggestions has a cast breezily adept not only at making up lyrics on the fly (naturally, there is a rap battle) but also at ad-libbing harmonies, backing vocals and basic choreography. Read the review. MF
Assembly George Square Studios, 30 July to 24 August
Stevie Martin: Clout
Stevie Martin’s show weighs up the differences between live and online comedy. It’s a tricksy and silly hour buoyed by arch good humour and high-quality gags tightly packed inside other gags, ready to jack-in-the-box out and multiply the surprise. Read the review. BL
Monkey Barrel, 1-8 August
Nish Kumar: Nish, Don’t Kill My Vibe
He is the pre-eminent comic polemicist of our age, the joker to whom lefties turn, and others revile, for his righteous tirades against racism, neoliberalism and the Tories. But what drove Kumar to this, where has it left him – and what good does it do? This state of the nation comedy explores the state of Nish too. Read the review. BL
Assembly George Square, 1-10 August
Last Rites
This collaboration between performer Ramesh Meyyappan and director George Mann describes a man’s final parting with his late father. That could have been sentimental but it is invested with rage, making a knotty mix of love and recrimination in which the personal and the political collide. Read the review. MF
Pleasance Courtyard, 18-24 August
