In recent years comedians have tended to focus inwards and find comedy in their mental health. Edinburgh 2024 was probably peak ADHD. It reached the point where a performer had a unique selling point if they announced that they were not neurodivergent. Judging by the first week of the 2025 Fringe however, stand-ups are now exploring their bodies rather than their brains. A sense of the fragility of life itself hangs over this year’s Fringe.
Sometimes the stories come completely out of the blue. New Yorker Cat Cohen, winner of the 2019 Best Newcomer Award here, had a major tour planned for 2023 which she abruptly cancelled. In her latest show Broad Strokes – don’t call it a comeback – Cohen (Pleasance, five stars) reveals how she had a stroke at the age of 30. It was totally unexpected, though looking back there may have been a link to the migraines that she had suffered from since childhood. She thought she was a hypochondriac but an MRI scan revealed a hole in her heart. Though of course she could still be a hypochondriac.
