We’ve reached the halfway point at the Edinburgh fringe, where more than a third of the 3,600 shows are comedy. Rain is pouring and I’m clambering up one of the city’s many hills to get to the next show: my 50th of the festival. This is my second year serving on the panel for the Edinburgh comedy awards, whose best show prize is the most coveted of the festival, previously bagged by everyone from Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson and co’s 1981 Cambridge Footlights to, in later years, Al Murray, Bridget Christie and Rose Matafeo. It means I get the golden ticket into the dingy rooms where unknowns become the stars of tomorrow before our eyes.
A comedian’s first hour is their chance to introduce themselves, with all their quirks and personality, to the world. And no one has done that with more flare than Abby Wambaugh, in their enchanting The First Three Minutes of 17 Shows (Pleasance Courtyard, ★★★★). It’s just that: the beginning of 17 different shows, each presenting a different chapter of Wambaugh’s life, including a move to the Netherlands, pregnancy and miscarriage; it bursts with creativity and unexpectedness.
