Nominations for the prestigious Edinburgh comedy award, to be announced on Wednesday, are likely to include a few standup routines that sound about as funny as an electricity bill. Fringe performers who deal with parental cruelty, online sex-shaming, serious addiction, mental illness and a coercive cult could all be in the running.
Early tips suggest that among the contenders may be Ana Magliano, with a show about her hidden bisexuality, André de Frietas, a Portuguese comic who describes his descent into prostitution, Moses Storm, who chronicles his childhood inside a cult, and fellow American Avital Ash, with an act that “workshops her suicide note”.
