Wednesday July 1st 2026
Jess Robinson: Elton Reimagined (photo by Ed Moore)
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
Ben Hart brings illusion with a mix of comedy, Ted Hill returns with fast-paced stand-up and Jess Robinson return with pitch-perfect impressions, alongside much more in this years Midlothian View Fringe top picks.
Ben Hart: The Labyrinth
A Fringe favourite since 2011, Ben Hart has built a reputation as one of its most distinctive and compelling performers, widely regarded within the industry as a leading voice in a new generation of theatrical magic, combining the precision of illusion with the hilarious, offbeat wit of a stand up.
Following sold-out shows around the world, globally renowned, multi award-winning magician Ben Hart (Britain’s Got Talent, Killer Magic, The One Show) returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with a brand-new production offering up a unique kind of alchemy. The Labyrinth is a dark, funny, and astonishing journey into the hidden patterns that shape our lives.
Ben Hart is performing at Palais du Variété at Assembly George Square Gardens at 6:30pm from the 5th to the 30th of August. Click here for tickets.
Ted Hill: PowerPoindexter
Fresh from his golden buzzer audition and semi-final win which see him progress to the final of this year’s Britain’s Got Talent, rising star and multimedia comedian Ted Hill returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with PowerPoindexter – a brand new hour of fast-paced and unapologetically stupid PowerPoint stand up.
Ted Hill recently discovered that he’s weird, which has given him an exciting new puzzle to solve – exactly what kind of weird does he want to be? In PowerPoindexter, Ted invites audiences into his strange and chaotic mind, through ridiculous jokes, silly visual effects, and 3.4 gigabytes of slides.
Ted Hill is performing at Studio Five at Assembly George Square Studios at 6:00pm from the 5th to the 30th. Click here for tickets.
Ted Hill (phoo by Rebecca Need-Menear)
Kate Butch: A Kate in the Hands is Worth Two in the Butch
Comedy queen and star of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Kate Butch is heading back to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with a brand new stand up show, A Kate in the Hand is worth Two in the Butch.
This year, Kate Butch is on a mission to become a better person or die trying. Through the medium of sequins, proverbs and foliage, join Kate as she dissects the shadiest moments of her life and find out whether you really can teach an old dog to change its spots as it shits in the woods. Hilariously dissecting the online backlash that results from being a queer person on the telly, Kate takes a long hard look in the mirror and asks whether she is really a terrible human or just needs to grow a thicker skin without ruining her complexion.
Kate Butch is performing at Studio Five at King Dome at Pleasance Dome at 8:00pm from the 5th to the 30th. Click here for tickets.
John-Luke Roberts: What I Talk About When I Run About Talking
Fringe Legend and acclaimed alternative comedian John-Luke Roberts returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with his first brand new show in four years: What I Talk About When I Run About Talking.
Following a pulmonary embolism and a subsequent mental health crisis, John-Luke Roberts found himself confronting death head-on. As a member of the Berlin-based art group, The Association for the Palliative Turn, he has channeled his health scare into creating work which aligns with palliative principles of acceptance. As a result, What I Talk About When I Run About Talking is a surprisingly poignant, hilarious, and unapologetically accessible exploration of the human condition and how little we understand about what is happening in our own bodies.
John-Luke Roberts is performing at Studio Five at Monkey Barrel 4 at Monkey Barrel Comedy at 2:10pm from the 5th to the 30th. Click for tickets.
Sid Singh: Love Bombing
Fringe favourite and winner of a 2023 Comedian’s Choice Award, Sid Singh is returning to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with a brand-new hour of stand-up dedicated to fighting the good fight.
Billed as the only Fringe comedy show that will make you laugh while actively teaching you how to stand up to the Trump administration, Love Bombing is a surprisingly uplifting and hilarious exploration of activism, the state of the world and Sid’s disastrous love life.
Sid Singh is performing at The Lounge at Laughing Horse @ The Counting House at 4:15pm from the 6th to the 30th. Click here for tickets.
Sid Singh
Jess Robinson: Elton Reimagined
Following a smash-hit fringe run last summer and a UK tour, multi-award-winning, pitch-perfect impressionist Jess Robinson (BBC Radio 4’s Dead Ringers, Channel 4’s The Last Leg) returns to Edinburgh Festival Fringe with Elton Reimagined.
Channelling a variety of legendary female artists, from pop royalty such as Britney Spears and Lady Gaga, stars of the silver screen Judy Garland and Julie Andrews, and updated for 2026 with the voices of Lily Allen and Raye, Jess transforms Elton’s classics into something simultaneously surprising and spectacular. Combining heartfelt musicality with playful humour and a touch of theatrical magic, Jess delivers a show that is more than just a tribute – it is a celebration of Elton John’s music reimagined through the voices of iconic women.
Jess Robinson is performing at Piccolo Tent at Assembly George Square Gardens at 7:15pm from the 5th to the 30th. Click here for tickets.
Aarian Mahrabani: How’s Your Head?
Aarian Mehrabani, the multi-award-winning co-writer and performer of the smash-hit play IT’S A MOTHERF**KING PLEASURE, brings his highly anticipated debut stand-up show, How’s Your Head?, to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this summer.
Aarian has always considered himself a triple threat: Brown, Blind, and Bi. Arguably, that was already plenty of material for a single hour of comedy, even before his 2024 diagnosis of aggressive brain cancer. Drawing on these profound, life-altering experiences, Aarian expertly weaves together his distinctive wit, biting irreverence, and a powerful personal narrative that spans the secret joys of STI tests, his complex relationship with his Persian identity and his grueling hospital battle with a brain tumour. Bold, deeply personal, and relentlessly funny, How’s Your Head? introduces a fresh, vital voice to the stand-up circuit.
Aarian Mahrabani is performing at Bluebell at Underbelly, George Square at various times from the 5th to the 31st. For more information including tickets click here.
For this years full Fringe programme, visit: www.edfringe.com.
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