It is festival season and that means that in the next month there is so many great comedy festivals to look forward to! This month we are looking at some of the great shows that you can see at the Edinburgh Fringe. So take note because we are going to give you all the information you need for just a handful of some of the great shows happening this year!

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The Tao of Lloyd

Location:  Drawing Room at Assembly Rooms (Venue 20)

Dates:  Aug 6th-11th, 13th-30th

Time: 12:25

Price: £16 Concessions £15

Ticket Link: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/the-tao-of-lloyd

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Hello! Tell us all about your show!

It’s a solo show: one person, one stage, no safety net. Think less stand-up comedy, more slightly unhinged one-man show that also happens to be funny as hell.

It’s basically a sorta kinda guided meditation for people trying to survive late-stage everything — doomscrolling, the daily Trump nightmare, and the general feeling that modern life has become a very expensive group project nobody remembers agreeing to join.

There’s real heart in it, real chaos, and Guy Masterson directs. Guy is an Olivier Award-winning director who has been producing, directing and performing critically acclaimed Fringe hits since John Major was Prime Minister, so … honestly, if The Tao of Lloyd completely flies off the rails, at least it’ll do so under the supervision of a man with decades of Fringe survival experience.

Oh, and it’s built around the character of Lloyd Dobler from the 1980s film Say Anything… The boombox-over-the-head guy. The “I don’t want to buy anything, sell anything, or process anything for a living” guy.

Well… he grew up.

Now he’s a middle-aged zen punk dissident duct taping ancient spiritual wisdom to the collapse of the American empire.

You absolutely do not need to know the film to connect to the show. But if you do, there’s an extra emotional layer humming underneath it all.

What other acts are you looking forward to seeing at the fringe?

I want to get delightfully lost. I want to stumble into a room and watch something I have never seen before and can’t quite describe afterward. That’s the Fringe promise, and I fully intend to collect on it.

Also: I love comedy with an edge to it, political work that remembers to be entertaining, and the occasional completely unhinged physical theatre piece that makes me question my life choices.

But honestly, I don’t know what I don’t know yet, so if you’ve got recommendations, tag me. I’m @DennisTrainorJr and I am genuinely taking notes.

Have you done the fringe before? What are the key pieces of advice you have been given or would give to new groups or people performing at the fringe.

I was at the Fringe in 2023 with my solo show Manifest Destiny’s Child — a politically charged, darkly funny piece about American empire. The Scotsman called it “refreshingly self-aware and honest,” which, for a show partially about America setting the planet on fire while insisting it’s spreading freedom, felt like a genuine compliment.

My biggest advice to artists is this: don’t spend the whole month trying to be the next Fleabag or Baby Reindeer. I’m doing that, so get out of my lane!

Seriously though: don’t chase the version of Fringe you imagined from Instagram posts and five-star pull quotes. Some days you’ll have a packed house and feel transcendent. Some days you’ll perform for two people and one of them will leave to use the bathroom and never come back.

Do the show anyway.

And if another artist invites you to some strange basement performance described only as “part clown piece, part ritual, part tax audit” you should go see that! That’s the Fringe.

Talk us through your daily routine for a day at the Fringe

Wake up. Coffee. Stretch a little.

This year, like the last time I performed, my show is in the early afternoon. I like getting out early enough to walk the city before the full Fringe chaos kicks in. I hydrate and protect a little quiet time before the show. Then I do the show, hopefully connect with an audience, then it’s: promo stuff, flyering, interviews, seeing other shows.… and afterward usually end up in a pub somewhere talking theater, politics, life, and artistic survival with new friends and strangers.

Ok, where is your favourite place to eat at the Fringe?

Honestly? The Summerhall courtyard around The Royal Dick.

Partly because you can get food and a pint there without feeling like you’ve accidentally taken out a mortgage, but mostly for the collision of artists and audience members mid-festival. Everyone’s running on some combination of adrenaline, bad decisions, and the specific joy of having just seen something amazing that cracked them open.

It’s chaotic, communal, and weirdly beautiful.

Best thing about performing at the fringe?

You go to see someone’s work and come out changed in some small way you can’t quite name. That happens more at the Fringe than anywhere else I’ve ever been. And knowing your show might do that for someone else that’s why I’m getting on the plane.

Do you bring anything special from home to make it feel more special whilst you are away?

Imagine no possessions. It’s easy if you try.

If people want to find out more about you where can they follow you on social media?

@DennisTrainorJr on Insta or X. But mostly insta.

And Finally in three words – Why should people come and see the show?

Hilarious. Heartfelt. Hopeful.

Thank you again for all your support in reading and engaging with the website.

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