The comedians returning to stand-up at 2013 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
David Baddiel, Jem Rolls, John Lloyd and Jenny Eclair return to their stand-up roots
As Alexei Sayle, the man responsible for alternative comedy, makes a very long-awaited comeback to the fold, we find a few more acts being lured to the August madness for the first time in a while
Jenny Eclair
Still revered as the only female stand-up to win the Perrier (and all its guises subsequently), her appearance this year marks Eclair’s first solo hour since 2001’s Middle Aged Bimbo. She may have grown older but that bite is still as strong.
Gilded Balloon Teviot, Bristo Square, 0131 622 6552, 2–17 Aug, 7.30pm, £13.50–£14.50 (£12.50–£13).
David Baddiel
In 1998, Baddiel (alongside buddies like Frank Skinner) was riding the wave of laddism as Loaded sold by the bucketload. Times have changed since then and the comic is back with his first solo show since that year and plenty of stories to fill the gaps.
Assembly George Square, 0131 623 3030, 1–11 Aug, 7.30pm, £15–£17.50. Preview 31 Jul, £7.50.
Jem Rolls
A pioneer of poetry cabaret nights when they were about as popular as ebola, Rolls returns to the festival for the first time since 2002 (or 2004, depending on how you look at it) with a show he describes as 70% comedy and featuring a really big joke about gunpowder.
Banshee Labyrinth, Niddry Street, 0131 226 0000, 3–24 Aug (not 20), 8.40pm, free.
Rory McGrath and Philip Pope
The year 1994 was the last time McGrath and Pope did Edinburgh together. In the year 2013 they will be traversing a Bridge Over Troubled Lager with songs and chat which should have ‘something to offend everybody’.
Assembly George Square, 0131 623 3030, 3–26 Aug (not 10–15), 10.10pm, £12–£13 (£10.50–£11.50). Previews 31 Jul–2 Aug, £8.
John Lloyd
The great-grandfather of all Fringe returns comes from the man known now for Spitting Image and QI but who last appeared here in 1976. Yes, you read that right: nineteen seventy six. In a show entitled The Unpleasantness, he performed with One Foot in the Grave writer David Renwick and Hitchhiker Douglas Adams.
Underbelly, Bristo Square, 0844 545 8252, 3–24 Aug (not 13), 4.40pm, £11–£13 (£10–£12). Previews 31 Jul–2 Aug, £7.