Every Ghost Story, Hoots @ Potterrow, Edinburgh Fringe 2026

By Ollie Wilson

Billy Morton - in the guise of Billy Bones - takes you through a rapid and very funny tour of the supernatural world in this erudite and entertaining show.

Clad in cravat, silk gown and suit trousers, Billy, who has something of the demeanour of the great Troy Hawke, is a character actor with a lovely gentle sense of humour, teasing out the inconsistencies and risible flaws in classic ghost literature. I loved the passages on the Curse of Tutankhamun, the Marie Celeste and Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle literally away with the fairies.

And Bones, who has an attractive voice, involved the audience in the tiny 'Wee Container 1' at the commendable Hoots venue skilfully, chancing on a professional actor in the crowd to perform to one of his ghost stories with another audience member. 

It was all most pleasant and thoroughly enjoyable and worthwhile. And the miraculously working old TV and classic radio set and other vintage props added an additional layer to a well-planned piece of performance.

Well done, Billy boy!

Star Rating: ****

Phil Nichol: Aren't We Lucky, Gilded Balloon Teviot, Edinburgh Fringe 2026

 By Ollie Wilson

Phil Nichol is one of the world's greatest club comedians! I have been following his career for 25 years, ever since he used to headline at my Soho comedy club, Joe's Comedy Madhouse, and have always been amazed by his speed, musicality and power of delivery!

Now he is 60 and, rather than slowing down, he seems to have sped up, talking 39 to the dozen, and trying to cram in as much material as possible. It is incredible to watch, though I do wonder sometimes why he has to go so super-fast. 

This show contains new and old material, such as his classic dry-humping his ex-girlfriend's dad routine, and plenty of storytelling and acting, playing his elderly mother, a camp dancer and a host of other characters. 

It is amazing! And I am endlessly impressed by Nichol's versatile acting skills and his need to fit a shed load of very different comedy ideas and stories into one existential theme, connecting us all. 

His performance left me happy but exhausted. It is always a sublime joy to see him perform!

Star Rating: *****

Helicops 1: Find Your Wings!, Assembly George Square, Edinburgh Fringe 2026

By Ollie Wilson

 What a crazy, imaginative, hilarious show!  

Joe Smith, Harris Morris and Sam Dodgshon have created a remarkably surprising, absurd and fun comedy about American 'helicops' - half-men, half-helicopters - seeking the killer of one of their own. The convoluted plot doesn't matter much; it's all in the extraordinary performance, beefy accents and zany antics. At one point, the audience is repeatedly encouraged to bombard the actors with little plastic birds and then retrieve them from the stage to start again! It is chaos!

Moreover, the interrogation scene, involving a game punter, is brilliantly funny, and the gifted cast make the most of technical glitches and line slippages to win additional laughs. I loved the helicop hats and the walking Helicop HQ. And the relentlessly daft gags had the audience in stitches.

This wonderful alternative comedy will only get even stronger and slicker as the Fringe goes on.

Star Rating: *****