Wednesday August 26th 2026
Adele Cliff (Photo by Karla Gowlett)
Written by Glasgow View Reporter, Liam Eunson
A comedian is writing a brand-new show every day at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe – with around 10 hours spent researching and writing jokes before each performance.
Returning for her 12th Fringe, London based comedian Adele Cliff has taken on a big challenge: changing the show’s topic each performance in the aim to recreate an American style late-night comedy show.
Described as ‘Edinburgh’s first American late-night style topical comedy extravaganza’, the show’s subject matter changes per night, performing fresh jokes everyday centered around the news.
‘Adele Cliff’s Topical Late Night Show with Adele Cliff’ aims to bring all the best parts of an American late-night TV show to Edinburgh in the early evening, being a first-of-its-kind at the Fringe that aims to bring fresh material each day.
Adele explained: “A show that changes every day that is truly topical will be fairly unique her ein Edinburgh because it’s quite hard to do a show that changes everyday. And doing one that changes with the ongoing news makes it distinct from other shows.”
The award-winning stand-up and topical writer is joined by a house band, comedian Katie Pritchard and reporter Will Davies, coming together to create a show that has been popular at this year’s Festival, attracting audiences that often return due to the show being different each day.
Bringing this unique and tricky concept to the Fringe, Adele highlighted the work that goes into the performance away from the stage, consisting of around 10 hours of research and writing each day and night.
“The show is at 7:20pm so we normally think of what the big news stories of tomorrow will be. We try to make a few decisions on what the stories will be the night before and do research that night. Then on the day we sort of finish all that bits up”, she explained.
“I probably do about three hours of writing the night before and then maybe three or more in the morning before my other work in progress show then all the time between my shows. So around 10 hours of writing each day.”
Having no background in journalism or news, this year’s performance is a big challenge for Adele despite her rich experience in writing. Adele’s experience with topical comedy also includes writing for BBC Scotland’s Breaking the News, as well as work on Dead Ringers and The News Quiz.
Explaining the difficulty of manoeuvring around news and finding the joke in distressing stories, Adele explained:
“You have to find the right angle because some of the news itself isn’t funny, it’s horrible. So it’s the people you have to mock, such as Putin for example. It’s all about working out the route because there are jokes to be had in the news but the jokes are not at the expense of people suffering, it’s all about manoeuvring around it.”
She added: “You have to cover the big things like Russia and the US but we are also trying to cover some Scottish stuff and some local stuff. You don’t want to be too in-depth about US senators and you don’t want to be far too local like a man in Midlothian steals someone’s bin for example.”
Photography by Karla Gowlett
Every show covers the biggest international news stories dominating the headlines, from Trump to the Ukraine war.
With more than 4000 shows at this year’s Fringe, vast majority at around 3600 are fixed scripts and revised stand-up routines that are performed largely identical each day, making Adele’s show a stand-out at the festival.
With various improv performances that intentionally shift their topics each day, ‘Adele Cliff’s Topical Late Night Show with Adele Cliff’ is the only ‘American late-night TV show’ style performance that discusses current affairs.
Another example of a popular improv performance is ‘Showstopper! The Improvised Musical’ which is an award-winning West End smash hit that uses audience suggestions to totally improvise a new musical every show.
The format has already encouraged some audience members to return for multiple performances, with Adele saying the changing material gives people a reason to come back and see the show again.
She said: “We had several people who’ve come back multiple times because obviously it’s different. So if they like it, it will be different next time. So they can enjoy that.”
With new jokes written each night and only having one chance to land, there is a certain element of risk involved each night.
Adele highlighted: “It’s a little bit thrilling, isn’t it? The idea that it might all just go terribly. There’s a little bit of peril involved.”
Despite the possibility of jokes falling flat, she said the volume of material written each day means the show can move on quickly if something does not work.
The experiment appears to have paid off, with Adele already hoping to bring a similar show back next year.
“I’d like to do a show like this again next year and maybe elsewhere depending on how I can coordinate it,” she said.
“It’s been fun. I think people who’ve come have really enjoyed it. I think it’s a very good vehicle to put topical news into the Fringe.”
Attending her 12th Fringe, Adele highlighted the rising costs of taking part in the festival, explaining that it remains a concern for many performers. Despite the rising costs, she said she has noticed a high standard of performances this year, describing it as an “overwhelming amount of good stuff to see” despite having little time to enjoy other shows amongst her long hours of writing.
Despite the challenges, she said: “I really like the Fringe. I wouldn’t keep coming back if I didn’t think it was really good.”
For anyone still looking for a Fringe show to see, Adele described it simply as “the news, but funny”, explaining:
“It’s just a real highlight of proper topical joke writing done well, I think. Yeah, people should come. It’s nice.”
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