Wednesday August 12th 2026
Aarian Mehrabani (photo by Andy Hollingworth)
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
Described as ‘bold, deeply personal, and relentlessly funny’, Aarian Mehrabani’s debut Fringe hour, ‘How’s Your Head?’, has been highly anticipated despite it being the comedian’s first solo show at the festival.
Unfortunately, the performance I saw struggled to live up to those lofty descriptions, feeling more like a work in progress than a fully formed Fringe hour.
The multi-award-winning co-writer and performer of the play ‘IT’S A MOTHERF**KING PLEASURE, has brought his first solo show to the festival this year, discussing his sexuality, heritage and living life blind.
Mehrabani, who is blind, brings his own experiences of navigating the world with a visual impairment into the show, giving the material a genuinely personal perspective.
There are moments where Mehrabani’s experiences as a blind comedian provide an interesting and distinctive perspective, but the material doesn’t always feel fully developed, leaving some stories and ideas feeling unfinished.
Living with a life altering visual disability, Aarian has worked his way through the entertainment space until completing his dream of performing his own stand-up hour.
Using his visual impairment as a main theme of the performance, Aarian jumps from topic to topic, discussing his bisexuality, growing up in an Iranian household, and his 2024 diagnosis of aggressive brain cancer which inspired the show’s name, ‘How’s Your Head?’.
Weaving together wit, experiences and personal narrative that spans a variety of topics, the show felt too full with Aarian working at a fast pace to cover many topics that could be the main theme of a show on their own.
With the many topics dominating the show’s flow, Aarian was able to creatively weave the topics together allowing the show to flow naturally. Despite this, the amount of subject matter felt overwhelming, fitting too much context into one show.
The comedy displayed was witty and straight to the point. Audience reactions varied, creating a lot of laughter in the first half of the performance but this seemed to fade as the show dragged on.
Rather than allowing the strongest stories to breathe, Mehrabani often moves quickly on to the next topic, meaning some of the more interesting ideas are introduced before being left behind.
Using his blindness to create laughs, Aarian used crowd participation in the form of a sighted guide, asking members of the audience to describe the room and take part in the show. His crowd work was top tier for a debut solo show, commanding the stage with confidence.
This confidence and crowd work was dominated by the show’s fast pace, leaving little time for the audience to sit in on the joke.
The biggest laughs came from his crowd work which creatively complimented the jokes. Despite being blind, Aarian had a strong understanding of how to use the crowd to his advantage.
The show’s more serious moments, particularly when discussing his cancer diagnosis, provide some of its most personal material. However, the rapid pace makes it difficult for these moments to have the impact they could, with Mehrabani often moving quickly between humour and more emotional storytelling.
There is clearly a strong show hiding within ‘How’s Your Head?’. Mehrabani has an engaging personality, a distinctive perspective and impressive confidence for a first solo Fringe hour. His crowd work is particularly strong, and his willingness to make himself the subject of the joke creates some of the show’s funniest moments.
However, the performance feels as though it is still searching for its final form. There is simply too much packed into one hour, with several subjects that could each sustain an entire show being introduced and explored before the audience has much opportunity to settle into them.
‘How’s Your Head?’ is ambitious, personal and full of potential, but it doesn’t quite live up to its description as a “relentlessly funny” hour. With more time to develop the strongest material, slow the pace and allow its stories to breathe, Mehrabani could have a much stronger show on his hands.
Aarian Mehrabani’s debut standup hour is a 3/5 Fringe show, with much room for improvement.
