British Comedy Guide

2017 Edinburgh Fringe

Best reviewed Edinburgh Fringe shows 2017

Hannah Gadsby

There were more than 1,700 different comedy shows to pick from at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017. But which of these shows, according to critics, were the best?

As part of our annual coverage of the festival, we log every review for every comedy show. This year we collected up over 4,600 reviews from 122 different publications.

In descending order, here are the shows from the comedy section of the programme that were reviewed at least 8 times and managed to average 4 or higher across those reviews.

Click on any name to see the full list of reviews for that show.


Hannah Gadsby - Nanette. Hannah Gadsby

Hannah Gadsby

Phil Nichol: Your Wrong. Phil Nichol

Phil Nichol

Tom Ballard: Problematic. Tom Ballard

Tom Ballard

Mat Ewins Presents Adventureman 7: The Return of Adventureman. Mat Ewins

Mat Ewins

Sarah Kendall: One-Seventeen. Sarah Kendall

Sarah Kendall

Larry Dean: Fandan. Larry Dean

Larry Dean

Pierre Novellie. Pierre Novellie

Pierre Novellie

Fin Taylor: Lefty Tighty Righty Loosey. Fin Taylor

Fin Taylor

Rose Matafeo: Sassy Best Friend. Rose Matafeo

Rose Matafeo

Colin Hoult / Anna Mann in How We Stop the Fascists. Colin Hoult

Anna Mann (Colin Hoult)

Lauren Pattison: Lady Muck. Lauren Pattison

Lauren Pattison

Doug Anthony All Stars: Near Death Experience

Doug Anthony All Stars

Mae Martin: Dope. Mae Martin

Mae Martin

Stuart Goldsmith: Like I Mean It. Stuart Goldsmith

Stuart Goldsmith

Tom Allen: Absolutely. Tom Allen

Tom Allen

Tiff Stevenson: Bombshell. Tiffany Stevenson

Tiff Stevenson

Butt Kapinski. Deanna Fleysher

Butt Kapinski

John Robins: The Darkness of Robins. John Robins

John Robins

Bruce

Bruce

Spencer Jones: The Audition. Spencer Jones

Spencer Jones

Joseph Morpurgo: Hammerhead. Joseph Morpurgo

Joseph Morpurgo


Brennan Reece, Phil Wang, Andrew Maxwell, Adam Riches, Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Rhys James, Steen Raskopoulos, Red Bastard, Ahir Shah, Sara Pascoe, Jordan Brookes, Sophie Willan and Murder, She Didn't Write also had a high average star rating across 8 or more reviews.

Of the performances found in the Cabaret and Theatre sections of the programme that had comedy elements to them, comic magician Colin Cloud picked up the most stars.

Find all the reviews for any show

We would like to stress our analysis makes no distinction between established broadsheet reviewers and blog sites run by students and their differing views on what a five star show is; plus - due to the nature of the way the press operates - there is a bias in this list towards already established and acclaimed comedy acts who are able to attract more press coverage... so this list is likely to be missing some 'hidden gems'!


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Published: Monday 4th September 2017

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