edinburgh fringe – The Comedy Bureau

The Comedy Bureau Field Report Ep. 260: Erica Bitton & 10 Years of a Solo Show

June 11, 2025

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Almost always, the work that goes into a deeply personal solo show is almost entirely invisible. There are years of work and reworking and giving up and getting re-obsessed that drive a person to create something possibly so unique and inspiring and hilarious and then perform over and over and over and over again only to have audiences marvel an hour at a time. Erica Bitton and her work with her amazing solo show Vacuum Girl has gone through all of its peaks and valleys all the way to the marvelous place that it is now. We talk to her all about it on this week’s TCB Field Report.

Follow Erica @gurubf and get tix for Vacuum Girl here.

Produced by Jake Kroeger
Music by Brian Granillo
Artwork by Andrew Delman and Jake Kroeger

Pick of the Day: EDINBURGH POSTVIEW FESTIVAL (near LA) 10/15

October 5, 2023

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If you just so happen to not have several thousands of dollars lying around this Summer to head on to Edinburgh, Scotland for the world famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival, you might wonder how you’d ever get to have enough dough to ever actually catch even a bit of the hundreds upon hundreds of shows that descend upon the city in August every year.

Well, if you’re in LA, you’re in a bit of luck as many who have embarked to the Fringe (and subsequently made it back in one piece) are doing another exclusive performance of their shows in a place almost as mountainous as Edinburgh (Altadena). Yes, Public Displays of Altadena is having an entire day/night of LA based Fringe shows featuring the exuberant comedy and comedy adjacent talents of Mark Vigeant, Claire Woolner, Brianna Ahlmark, John Norris, George Aivaliotis, Maddie Widdoes, and Liz Toonkel.

Instead of $$$$, this Edinburgh Postview Festival will only run you $60 for the whole thing (or $10-$15 per show), which is such a grand deal. PDA is hosting this Edinburgh Postview Festival on Sun. Oct. 15th from 12PM to 10:30PM. Get more details, schedule, and, most importantly, tickets right here.

Pick of the Day: Edinburgh Fringe Preview Day (in LA) 7/22

June 30, 2023

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cam gavinski, claire woolner, edinburgh fringe, elysian theater, greta titelman, griffin kelly, izzy gerasole, jessy morner ritt, los angeles comedy, sara schaefer, sophie santos

Summer is officially in session, which means that the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is just around the corner. While it’s always enticing to take up an opportunity to watch as many of hundreds upon hundreds of shows, most of us don’t have the money to fly to Scotland, find a place to crash for a month, and THEN pay to see shows. At least performers have a shot to make some money maybe (though, more realistically, hoping to break even).

That’s why The Elysian Theater’s annual tradition of putting a whole day of their favorite LA comedy folks that are bound for the Edinburgh Fringe and presenting their shows back-to-back-to-back-to-back.

This particular Edinburgh Fringe Preview Day at The Elysian will run through 8 shows from 12:20PM to 11PM on Sat. Jul. 22nd. We’ve actually seen most of these shows already and tell you that it would be worth your night to catch any of them.

On the slate are:

Sophie Santos… Is Codependent
Joy’s Bed & Breakfast w/ Jessy Morner-Ritt and Izzy Gerasole
Two Cats on a Date by Griffin Kelly
Claire Woolner: A Retrospection
Going Up w/Sara Schaefer
Greta Titelman’s Exquisite Lies
BONHEUR by Cam Gavinski

It’s so much great show without having to get airfare or room and board and it will only cost you $12-$20 per show or $60 for a day pass to watch all 8 and make it a whole day at The Elysian. Get tickets/details/more here. Do it now!

Pick of the Day: Edinburgh Fringe Preview Day (in LA) 7/23

July 14, 2022

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One of the world’s biggest and most preeminent performance festivals, especially when it comes to comedy, is the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Thousands of shows that happens over the course of a month and every square inch of Edinburgh, Scotland becomes a show or part of a show.

While that’s all brilliant and it’s a blur of dazzling, mind bending show after show after show after show after show, there is the issue of actually getting to Scotland and where to stay during the festival. That usually runs up a tab of several thousands of dollars and not a lot of folks just have that in a back pocket they forgot about.

So, The Elysian is doing LA a solid by putting on a whole entire day of preview shows for The Edinburgh Fringe on Sat. Jul. 23rd featuring many of LA’s most daring performers putting on their solo shows one last time before they head abroad with it.

So that’ll feature

11 AM – Amber Glancy: Wine Show
12:20 PM – Brianna Ahlmark: Gertrude
1:40 PM – Kylie Brakeman: Linda Hollywood’s Big Hollywood Night
3 PM – Amrita Dhaliwal: Driving Around
4:20 PM – Brian McElhaney: A Completely Untested Hour of Stand Up
5:40 PM – Hannah Pilkes: Woman On the Verge
7 PM – Kate Berlant: Like You’ve Never Seen Her Before
8:40 PM – Business Casual: FERAL
10 PM – John Norris: Mr. Chonkers

You can either buy tickets for the first five shows for $18 or second four shows for $26 or get access to all of them plus admission to Tomorrow! with Ron Lynch for $60. That’s still thousands of dollars cheaper than actually going to the Fringe if you weren’t tabulating the math. Go get your tickets here.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge Has Been Made the First President of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society

February 19, 2021

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edinburgh fringe, fringe festival, phoebe waller bridge

Phoebe Waller-Bridge stands very, very tall these days from being one of the most successful veterans of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where her groundbreaking show Fleabag was first performed as a solo show before it became the beloved and acclaimed TV series.

So, the Fringe Society, the charity organization that supports artists performing at the world famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival, has appointed Phoebe as a President (FYI, most performers at the Fringe have to pay their own way to the festival from top to bottom and can only hope to make their money back through ticket sales). She’ll be reaching out on behalf of and represent the Fringe Society and she is pretty much the perfect person to do so.

We’ll be curious to see what her first moves in this capacity as Fringe Society President as the Edinburgh Fringe Festival isn’t happening live and in person until 2022. There will be some sort of virtual programming, but the details haven’t been announced yet.

In any case, it’s about time Phoebe Waller-Bridge had a title like president bestowed on her.

?Big news! ?

Yes, yes, it really is true…

We're excited to announce that @fleabag star, the excellent Phoebe Waller-Bridge, has been appointed as the first ever President of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society ❣️

Read more: https://t.co/ppPxOUo6DH pic.twitter.com/OyMoDKwtTU

— Edinburgh Festival Fringe (@edfringe) February 19, 2021

Comedy Central and Edinburgh Fringe Have Made “Comedy Central at The Comedy Store”, a Series of Specials w/Virtual Audience

August 3, 2020

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Christopher Bliss, comedy central, comedy central at the comedy store, edinburgh fringe, Fatiha El-Ghorri, Helen Bauer, jamali maddix, Jamie D’Souza, Joanne McNally, Kuan-Wen, Leo Reich, Thanyia Moore, Travis Jay, Wayne Mazadza

(via THR)

Since The Edinburgh Fringe, the massive annual performing arts festival that takes over all of Edinburgh is cancelled for this year, the festival could not just stay dormant until next year or whenever they could have thousands upon thousands of shows take over the city for all of August.

So, they’ve partnered with Comedy Central to produce a collection of stand-up comedy specials from favorite performers that they would have presumably been a big hit at the Edinburgh Fringe this year were there no pandemic to deal with. It will be called Comedy Central at The Comedy Store (unrelated to The Comedy Store in LA) and feature host Jamali Maddix and the likes of “up-and-coming” talents Joanne McNally, Thanyia Moore, Leo Reich, Helen Bauer, Travis Jay, Fatiha El-Ghorri, Christopher Bliss, Wayne Mazadza, Jamie D’Souza and Kuan-Wen.

The “episodes” are seven minutes and feature a virtual audience, which might make for a new precedent in making stand-up comedy for TV while the COVID-19 health crisis still exists. Previous to this announcement, the shortest specials produced at a network level were Netflix’s 15 minute specials in the still horribly titled The Comedy Line-Up. Virtual audiences are seemingly going to have figure into any sort of live comedy productions as well and we’re curious to see if they were able to dress it up in anyway like Super Secret Comedy has done with their wall of Zoom audience members.

Comedy Central at the Comedy Store will stream during the week on Comedy Central International’s social media starting Aug. 17th.

September 20, 2018

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edinburgh fringe, experimental comedy, experimental theater, los angeles, natalie palamides, nate, silverlake, solo show

Coming home with the very prestigious Total Theatre Award from the renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Natalie Palamides’ NATE will be having an encore run next week from Thurs., Sept. 27th-Sat. Sept. 29th at the Lyric Hyperion.

Don’t miss your last chance to see Natalie’s award winning show whether you haven’t gotten a chance to see it or not.

Tickets are $20 and you ought to go get them ASAP here.

The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, screenings, open mics, and more can be found at www.thecomedybureau.com.

October 16, 2017

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comedy show, edinburgh fringe, experimental comedy, laid, los angeles, lyric hyperion, natalie palamides, silverlake, sketch comedy, solo show

After gaining international critical acclaim at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Natalie Palamides’ groundbreaking show returns home for another run at The Lyric Hyperion Theatre & Cafe.

Also, the show’s director (and Fringe Festival favorite), Dr. Brown, will attempt to perform the show. Show description reads (probably written by Natalie):
Dr. Brown has been developing this show with Natalie for over a year and knows the show like the back of his hand… SO HE THINKS. Come watch Dr. Brown crash and burn OR, more likely, blow the show so far out of the water that Natalie hands the role over to him forever. Following the show the audience is welcome to watch Natalie give notes on his performance.

Get tickets for LAID here and the Dr. Brown Edition here.

The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, open mics, and maps can be found at www.thecomedybureau.com

June 20, 2017

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Andy Daly has built a cavalcade of iconic characters throughout his comedy careers. Some of those characters are monstrous, but in a devilishly fun way.

So, Daly is doing a whole solo show Andy Daly: Monsters Take Your Questions where he takes questions as those very characters. We have no doubt Dalton Wilcox and Don DiMello fielding questions will be a hell of a good time.

Catch the show before it heads off to the Edinburgh Fringe this August. Tonight’s engagement is stand by only, but you can buy tickets for upcoming dates (Fri, Jun. 30th @ UCB Sunset 9:30PM and Thu. Jul. 6th @ UCB Franklin 9:30PM) at UCB here.

The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, open mics, maps, and more at www.thecomedybureau.com.

June 28, 2016

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Tickets are $5 and you can (and should) get them here.

The rest of our listings for comedy shows/events as well as open mics and maps are embedded at www.thecomedybureau.com.

Preview Netflix Doc “Hannibal Takes Edinbugh” with Hannibal Buress Doing ‘Set List’

April 7, 2016

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documentary, edinburgh fringe, fringe festival, hannibal buress, improvised stand up, netflix, set list

Tomorrow, Netflix is giving us another dose of Hannibal Buress on top of the hour special Comedy Camisado they released earlier this year.

The documentary specifically follows Hannibal as he goes through a run at the legendary Edinburgh Fringe Festival and aptly called Hannibal Takes Edinburgh.

You can get a taste with Hannibal doing and improvised stand-up warm up and improvised stand-up on Edinburgh Fringe Festival favorite, Set List (started here in LA).

March 18, 2016

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character comedian, comedy shows, edinburgh fringe, hollywood, io west, katia kvinge, los angeles, squirrel

Scotland’s Katia Kvinge is doing a preview of her upcoming show, Squirrel, for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival at iO West. Katia has an impressive arsenal of characters and such an irresistibly silly energy on stage that has gotten her to perform around the world and win plenty of awards.

Check out Squirrel for free at iO West’s Del Close Theater on Sun. Mar 20th & Mar. 27th at 9:30PM.

The rest of our listings for shows and open mics with corresponding maps are embedded www.thecomedybureau.com.

September 12, 2011

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comedy, edinburgh fringe, rick overton, set list, standup

setlistcomedy:

Rick Overton opened almost every show at the Edinburgh Fringe, and gained a following for his mad Set List skills. Rick will also be opening the shows at Flappers Comedy Club in Burbank EVERY Sunday at 9pm starting Sept. 18.

Hear that? Set List is back in town after touring the world and Rick Overton’s opening every show at Flappers on Sundays. It’s improvised stand-up the way it should be done and none of you should miss it.