1. Soho Theatre: Underground Monk Show<\/strong><\/p>\n This year sees the return of this clown\/performance art supergroup<\/a> from LA. Top-tier performers, their 2024 work-in-progress show was a cult favourite, and this summer the group are unmissable.<\/p>\n 2. Lady Bolognese: Class War<\/strong><\/p>\n More clowning from the gurning duo Lady Bolognese, winners of the 2026 Leicester Comedy Festival best variety show. This is their Fringe debut<\/a> as dinner ladies Barbara and Veronica dishing the dirt.<\/p>\n 3. Frankie Thompson: Horrible Things<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThings from down the back of the sofa and floating in her soup, things from the bins of people in power.\u201d Clown and performance artist Frankie Thompson returns to the Fringe with Horrible Things<\/a>. An interesting and innovative performer, Thompson is restlessly experimental and satisfyingly eccentric.<\/p>\n 4. Ratbags Theatre: How to Art<\/strong><\/p>\n Another Fringe premiere<\/a> 5. Harriet Richardson: Creep<\/strong><\/p>\n Harriet Richardson\u2019s show may well be cut from similar cloth. Her Fringe debut Creep<\/a> is about obsession and the strange connections we feel with celebrities or performers, as she moves from the performance pieces of her earlier work to stand-up and storytelling. Richardson is perhaps best known for the project which saw her tattoo the mothers\u2019 names of every man she had ever slept with, an ode to the intimacy she tacitly shares with these women.<\/p>\n 6. Em Humble: Lady of the Lakes<\/strong><\/p>\n Over in the realm of character comedy, which has been newly flourishing in the last couple of years, we have Em Humble doing Arthurian-inspired characters and creatures in Lady of the Lakes<\/a>. Humble\u2019s quirky short film, Chicken Girl<\/a>, is a delight and gives a taste of her off-beat humour. <\/p>\n 7. Bebe Cave: Swoon<\/strong><\/p>\n From Arthurian legends to the Victorian era: in Swoon<\/a>, Bebe Cave is doing the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood. Last year\u2019s Fringe show saw her plundering the 14th century for inspiration; now Cave skewers the pretensions of the pre-Raphaelites \u201cand the women they love to drown\u201d.<\/p>\n 8. Li Jin Hao: Falling From A Moon<\/strong><\/p>\n Big-hitter Li Jin Hao was nominated for best newcomer in the 2024 Edinburgh Comedy Awards with his debut, Swimming In A Submarine, which introduced his distinctive comic style: softly spoken surrealism but with definite bite. His return to the Fringe, Falling From A Moon<\/a>, looks to be in the same vein.<\/p>\n 9. Sam Eley is Basil Crumbwick: Soul Sewage<\/strong><\/p>\n This year Sam Eley is doing horrid as his Soul Sewage<\/a> character, Basil Crumbwick. The show arrives with a lot of buzz and the whiff of cult status \u2013 Basil\u2019s papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 head feels loosely reminiscent of 1990s avant-garde icon Frank Sidebottom<\/a>.<\/p>\n 10. Demi Adejuyigbe: Sells Out<\/strong><\/p>\n Another comedian in the ascendant, Demi Adejuyigbe was also nominated for best newcomer at the 2024 Edinburgh Comedy Awards, a debut that received a lot of love. Adejuyigbe\u2019s new show<\/a> looks very promising, and ticks the musical comedy box.<\/p>\n 11. Daniel Kitson: Thrum<\/strong><\/p>\n And finally, there\u2019s the legendary Daniel Kitson<\/a>, a byword for artistic integrity and the stubborn pursuit of one\u2019s own particular muse. He\u2019s only doing a short run, so catch him while you can.<\/p>\n
\nfrom New Zealand\u2019s Ratbags Theatre. How to Art sees two bananas wake up duct-taped to the wall of an art gallery \u2013 a conceit clearly referencing Maurizio Cattelan\u2019s infamous Comedian artwork<\/a>, which saw a duct-taped banana fetch $5.2m (\u00a33.85m) in 2019. The show humorously probes ideas of classification and gatekeeping in art.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/289280\/count.gif\")
<\/p>\n