Thursday July 2nd 2026
Lil Wenker (photo by Hudson Hughes)
Written by Glasgow View Reporter, Liam Eunson
If your ideal Fringe show features original songs, grotesque characters or a bit of theatrical magic, the 2026 programme will not disappoint. These boundary-pushing, high-concept spectacles offer every kind of unhinged cabaret, interactive party chaos and theatrical horror.
Absurd alter-egos: the best characters and clowns:
Lil Wenker: BOYKING (9:45pm, Pleasance Courtyard)
Following the global success of her clown western BANGTAIL, Gaulier-trained Lil Wenker returns with a savagely funny horror comedy. Centered on a petulant, milk-guzzling eight-year-old prince scheming for world domination, this is a brilliant, clown-led musical mockery of modern power structures.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/lil-wenker-boyking
Fanny Bleach: The Nearly Naked Show (9:50pm, Assembly Roxy)
Cult drag-thing Fanny Bleach (created by Emma Crowley-Bennett) makes her solo debut with a subversive freak show of grotesque characters, immersive monologues and physical theatre.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/fanny-bleach-the-nearly-naked-show
Rob Preston: Amazing Global Solutions (8:20pm, Pleasance Courtyard)
As seen in fringe hit Brainsluts, Rob Preston brings to life a bleak, bizarre gallery of modern grotesques, from toxic influencer-bros to corporate stooges, in a razor-sharp satire of modern British isolation.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/rob-preston-amazing-global-solutions
Hudson Hughes: At Your Service (11:10pm, Underbelly Cowgate)
A spooky horror-comedy character hour following television’s favorite (and fading) vicar, Reverend Derek Gritt. Hughes (a two-time Sketch-Off Finalist) battles satanic powers, career obsolescence, and a crippling vaping addiction while trying to televise a fan’s funeral.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/hudson-hughes-at-your-service
Katie Pritchard is Sir Elton Scone (3:40pm, Hoots @ Nicolson Square)
An absurd and chaotic baking game show where the audience competes using absolutely no ovens. Pritchard (as seen on Channel 4’s Harry Hill’s Clubnite) transforms into a Jim Henson-esque version of Elton John who just really loves baked goods and musical comedy puns.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/katie-pritchard-is-sir-elton-scone
Musicals, Magic and more:
Mothman: A Romance Musical (6:50pm, Underbelly Cowgate)
Alternative comedy forces Alex Franklin (Channel 4, HBO Max) and Nikola McMurtrie (Funny Women Award winner and BBC Scotland Short Stuff creator) present the cryptid romantic comedy musical absolutely no one asked for. Expect a mutant super-soldier moth, B-movie tropes and banging musical numbers.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/mothman-a-romance-musical
Baby Lame: Hit Me Baby One More Lame! (10:50pm, Pleasance Courtyard)
An interactive, intergalactic space odyssey charting the unauthorized story of Britney Spears. Hosted by the cult alt-drag icon Baby Lame (co-host of the official BBC RuPaul’s Drag Race UK podcast) this spectacle blends space travel and murder with a hundred Britney tunes for an unmissable chaotic fringe experience.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/baby-lame-hit-me-baby-one-more-lame
Jess Robinson: Elton Reimagined (7:15pm, Assembly George Square Gardens)
The pitch-perfect impressionist, star of Spitting Image, and regular on Channel 4’s The Last Leg and Radio 4’s Dead Ringers, transforms Elton John’s classics by performing them in the voices of iconic women from Barbra Streisand and Liza Minnelli to Lily Allen and Raye.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/jess-robinson-elton-reimagined
Jess Robinson: Elton Reimagined (photo by Ed Moore)
Ben Hart: The Labyrinth (6:20pm, Assembly George Square Gardens)
The multi-award-winning Britain’s Got Talent star brings a dark, unsettling, and intimate in-the-round magical experience. Hart, a Member of The Inner Magic Circle who has worked as a magic consultant for Hollywood films combines theatrical storytelling and striking imagery to examine the patterns that dictate our choices. One of Midlothian View’s favourites of the fringe last year, Ben Hart is a magician not to be missed!
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/ben-hart-the-labyrinth
Harvey Cobb: Pink Boots and An Alcoholic Sock Puppet (5pm, Underbelly Cowgate)
A high-energy, meta-theatrical circus comedy show from the BNG Circus Prize winner. Watch Cobb’s facade as a “pretentious, serious contemporary artist” beautifully crumble into pink boot juggling and physical clowning alongside his tyrannical puppet, Mr. Sock.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/harvey-cobb-pink-boots-and-an-alcoholic-sock-puppet
