Gilded Balloon Patter House, Blether • Fringe 2026 ★★★★
Charming the audience with his nervous energy, Maxx Eddy dives into his set with a flurry of anecdotes, taking on issues of masculinity and bullying from a refreshingly personal point of view, allowing him to make important points without ever feeling over-heavy. He's a terrific storyteller, adept at impersonating the people in his life with amusing detail. And the overarching narrative here feels like a journey of self-discovery, trying to understand important truths about himself and human nature.
As a small kid, Maxx was taught by his father to stand up to bullies. And he has always been especially sensitive to anyone who comes after his masculinity or sexuality. Sometimes this means that he is looking for a fight, for example ordering a piña colada with extra cherries just to get attention. The show is structured around three fights he got himself into, including a ridiculously physical showdown in a karaoke bar. And an extended narrative follows his online romance with a girl in Brazil, followed by a lively trip to meet her there, leading to a flatly ridiculous situation involving a PCP cigarette and a battle with the sea itself on a Rio beach.
Identifying as bisexual, he includes entertaining stories about experiences with boyfriends and girlfriends who have helped him find a sense of self. Insecurities follow him at every step, leading to him challenging anyone who confronts them, because he thinks that's the way a real man reacts. With hilarious asides and a witty perspective on the world around him, Maxx is hugely likeable. And it's impressive that he's able to keep the audience laughing even as he takes on some very serious themes and situations. So it's lovely to see how he brings all of the silliness together into a gentle note about how equating strength with masculinity only leads to isolation. And it's clear that he's still working on this.
For more: MAXX EDDY • 17.Aug.26
Assembly Roxy, Downstairs • Fringe 2026 ★★★★
Using improvisation in a deliberately deadpan style, Shane Torres is a storyteller comic who embraces dark emotions and absurdity, but never gets silly. The humour emerges through what feels like a rather harsh worldview, so the show can often appear bleak, but witty observations make sure that it remains engaging. And the stream-of-consciousness narrative is thoroughly involving.
He opens with a brief confession about dropping Taco Bell into his mother's ashes, raising many questions, most of which will be answered over the next hour. Then Shane launches into his story about growing up in Texas with an Irish mother and a Mexican-American father, which made him fully Catholic. Anecdotes from his childhood have us imagining him as a chubby kid learning Irish dancing from his aunt, while his overworked night-nurse mother struggled to keep the family afloat after his vaguely unemployed father neglected to pay the bills, leaving them homeless. Much later, he recounts a haunting extended story, packed with amusing asides, about moving his father into a homeless shelter.
Because Shane simply chats to the audience, interacting with us, none of this seems scripted. So we genuinely feel his emotions as, for example, he becomes the "man of the house" at age 14. The masculinity theme is ever-present throughout this show, pointedly undermining expectations. And with each grim story point, he reminds us that it gets worse. Indeed, he circles back to comments about how both of his parents ended up as ashes in urns. It's an unusually serious show for a comic, and the way it takes on parenthood and mortality is both wryly offhanded and provocative on a surprisingly deep level.
For more: SHANE TORRES • 17.Aug.26
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