Kevin Fullerton’s Festival Diary 2026: Part one
In his first festival diary of the year, our resident columnist Kevin Fullerton meditates on a few shows with their knives out for comedy critics
Can you imagine what people say about critics behind their back? What four-letter expletives has Brian Logan been called in the green room of The Stand? How do comedians really feel about Steve Bennett of Chortle? You needn’t look far for the answers to those questions. Plenty of comics’ Instagram accounts (mainly the comments sections) are loaded with barbed critiques of the country’s most well-known opinion slingers, and you know what: they’re not impressed. One comment online from **** claims that all critics have been known to s** on a** and **** in each f****** while taking ****** from a small goat, which is illegal in most countries (Editor’s note: the previous sentence has been censored for the sake of Mr Kevin Fullerton’s career).
I’m nowhere near well-known enough to receive the same degree of casual opprobrium, but I’ve heard a handful of grumbles from PRs who feel their acts weren’t well represented. The criticism is more than welcome and, on occasion, fair enough; if you’ve weaselled your way into a job that involves sitting in a dark room judging art, people on the receiving end are well within their rights to have a go back at you. I set up an email address specifically so that people can send in genuine, full-throated abuse either about me, other reviewers or really anything that dissatisfies them. The address is [email protected] if you want to let off some steam. I may cry but I am happy to be the sewerman for your star-rating troubles.
Critics are inevitably the villain of any creative endeavour, so it’s surprising that a wellspring of shows about bastard comedy reviewers hasn’t arisen before. Chief among them this year is Adam Riches, a man who’s turned invasive crowd interaction into some of the most fun you can have at the Fringe. The Critic’s Way is a portrait of Caliban Munroe whose accent sounds like Mark Cousins shouting through a loudspeaker. He’s also an embittered caricature of every awful critic you’ve ever read, lazy in his barbs and harbouring a palpable dislike of comedy itself.
Andrew Doherty’s Reviewers Welcome… To Die!, meanwhile, is a very different brew, framing its show around an objectionable three-star critique which Doherty hates enough to write an hour-long takedown/horror flick based on the reviewer, a coked up posh boy virgin whose ignorance towards anything outside of London is only matched by his startling lack of imagination. Whether you’re an industry hack or not, both shows are well worth seeing. But for those doling out star ratings, they present an interesting cautionary tale: get into reviewing for the wrong reasons and you might become one of these creeps.