In The Factory, nestled in the heart of The Garden at this year’s Fringe Festival, ‘Best Of The Edinburgh Fest’ brings together three comedians for brisk 20-minute sets, performed in front of what can only be described as a giant, life-sized game of Guess Who.
Not that there’s much guessing required—their faces have already been plastered across Rundle Street and throughout the city. A little taste of the United Kingdom, on our doorstep.
Oliver Bowler opens the evening, flying in from what he cheerfully describes as a “sh.thole” called Bolton. Not familiar with it? Neither, it seems, is most of the audience — though one heckler offers that it’s best known for its football team, Bolton Wanderers. Bowler leans into his persona as a hopeless romantic, marking eight years with his partner while charming the crowd with observations on Australian supermarket culture. Ever realised just how nice our Aldi stores are?
Cultural comparison becomes a running thread throughout the night. Laura Lexx, hailing from Brighton, dismissed here as little more than “a bunch of pebbles near a sewerage works”, offers a sharp and self-aware take on arriving in Australia as a woman. Surrounded by tall, tanned, and seemingly effortless beauty, she skewers the absurdity of modern standards with warmth and wit, admitting she too, carries love handles — but don’t touch them! Her attempt to assimilate includes joining a gym and knocking out 20 burpees, generously adjusted to 10 on the exchange rate.
Jimmy McGhie rounds out the line-up with reflections on the more baffling elements of Australian life. In London, he notes, our teenagers in Birkenstocks and socks, roaming “off-leash” with cricket bats, would be cause for concern. Here, they’re just playing cricket — and the relief is palpable. He delights in the ease of local festivals like WOMADelaide, basking in Adelaide’s summer glow, while contrasting it with soggier scenes in the second to last weekend closer to back home: witnessing parents trudging through mud in the rain, desperately convincing their miserable children they’re having fun. Sunshine, it seems, is still a novelty.
‘Best Of The Edinburgh Fest’ is an easy, satisfying pick-me-up — a curated snapshot of sharp, distinctly British comedy that lands comfortably on Australian soil.
