By Aamer Rahman – Fear of a Brown Planet

The season has really flown past, it feels like it’s wrapping up just as we got in the swing of things. It’s been a massive learning curve for us but totally worth it. The last week of the festival has been very quiet. Apparently this
has been the trend for a while. Sales have been slow and audiences were pretty timid.

This week we watched some of the best shows we have seen all festival – Sam Simmons, Dave Eastgate, Dave Callan and W.Kamau Bell. We were also lucky to catch John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman’s double act, which played to an electric crowd at The Stand last night. Someone ended up pulling out so I was offered a spot on the bill – I turned up and Daniel Kitson was backstage. No pressure.

W Kamau Bell’s show was painfully funny. Brilliant from beginning to end, with a truly unique and original style. He demolished racism with a smile on his face.

Dave Eastgate was also hilarious, and Dave Callan had by far the greatest finale to any show. Ever. Sam Simmons’
show defies description, but it just got nominated for the highest comedy award of the festival, which tells you it was awesome.

Tonight I’ll be seeing Hari Kondabolu at Political Animal and tomorrow we hope to catch Paul Sinha do his thing at The Stand. We also want to watch Fiona O’Loughlin’s show before the end of the festival, as we have heard it’s amazing. 4 more shows to go and we’re done.

Aug 3-29 (not 15&22), Gilded Balloon Teviot, 7.15pm. Book here