Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

If you’re only watching Fringe shows in proper rooms with walls and a ceiling, you’re doing it wrong. One of this year’s quintessential festival experiences comes from Thom Tuck, whose show takes place at a different time and at a different place every day. 

Details are on social media, though I heard about this one following a chance encounter with Tuck in the street. We meet on a pathway around the back of Pleasance Grand at 5.15pm, people merrily walking through the show on the way to and from their nearby flats every few minutes. The first one was at 4.07pm in a ‘liminal space behind a crepe stand’ on the Meadows.

The experience is themed around a pub quiz, and you’re invited to lob in answers at any point to the likes of ‘name any Edinburgh Comedy Award best show or best newcomer nominees whose first and last initial are the same’. No bonus for mentioning 2011 newcomer contender Tuck.  That The Chase’s Jenny Ryan, Tuck’s partner, is there but only nominally interacting with the quiz makes it all the sweeter.

It gradually emerges that there is a show along with the trivia. Some of the questions are direct set-ups for bits of observational comedy – you won’t find what angle Tuck pees at in any reference book – while other routines start with a discussion of a subjective question – what is the best thing about the internet? – or lightly linked to the trivia. The comic even ends on a sincere song.

However charming and witty the material – and it is – that’s not really the point. The loose quiz format creates a ephemeral community as we try to name all five countries that end in ‘L’, or chat about the talking points Tuck raises. 

One of the lynchpins of ACMS, the Alternative Comedy Memorial Society, Tuck has created another mini cult,  evanescent, maybe, but memorable for being such a lovely ‘only at the Fringe’ experience.

Review date: 26 Aug 2024
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett