Monday July 27th 2026
Hannah Byczkowski during her interview with the Midlothian View
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
Highlighting that ‘if you go to the Edinburgh Fringe every year, you never stop thinking about Edinburgh’, popular Fringe comedian Hannah Byczkowski returns to this year’s festival with her first full Fringe run.
Bringing her debut performance, killer, that delves deep into the morbid theme of death and getting older, including her near death experience, Hannah has built a career in comedy after winning season one of BBC’s The Traitors.
Following a passion for comedy whilst working in palliative care in her home town of Stoke-on-Trent, Hannah took a risk and decided to do an open mic where she fell in love with live performance, leading her to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Speaking to the Midlothian View, Hannah highlighted her love for the Fringe labelling this year’s festival as a definite highlight of her career.
She explained: “It’ll be amazing and I am really looking forward to it but when you’ve written and created something from nothing you are a bit more vulnerable to it all as well.
“It will definitely be a highlight and I’ve never done the whole run on my own. I thought this year, I may as well just try it and I am really proud of it and pleased it’s come together.”
Having never had a full Fringe run, Hannah explained the pre-show preparation behind a Fringe performance, highlighting the extensive planning for a show begins the previous year.
“I think if you go into Edinburgh for the Fringe every year then you never stop thinking about Edinburgh because as soon as the Fringe is midway through you then have to start thinking about the next year.
“I started planning this year around 18 months ago, I think I’m as far as ready as I can be but there’s still things changing all the time.”
As a stand-up comedian, Hannah’s performances can change per night, creatively using crowd-work during her shows.
Hannah Byczkowski (photo by Matt Stronge)
Having a background in care, Hannah explained that she’s become a ‘massive hypochondriac’, forever worried about her health since working for so many years around ill people. Her years of care work which meant she was surrounded by death, eventually made her desensitised to it, using this strange feeling as the theme behind her stand-up performance.
She added: “I was surrounded by death for so long working in care and I was kind of faced with it all the time so I’m aware every day that I’m going to die at some point and it’s quite funny because that is all I think about. I wanted to tackle that thought head on so I wouldn’t be scared of it anymore so I’m bringing humour to it.”
Realising that ‘we’re all going to die, so you may as well laugh in the face of it’, Hannah’s breakdown at 30 alongside the realisation that she no longer cared who lived or died pushed her into the comedy circuit and became the main inspiration behind her new debut show.
Described as an expert in the morbid and macabre, alongside winning Traitors season one, Hannah hosts a popular podcast named ‘Ghost Nuns’ where she discusses death, crime and all things horror to her 5 million listeners with a fellow comedian.
She explained that the podcast both helps and accompanies her show as they both centre around this same theme of death, transferring skills over from the podcast to her live performances.
Alongside the planning that goes into a show, it is also complicated to secure a venue with the process ranging from easy to fiercely competitive, with different factors such as the prestige of the venue, budgets and the choice of target curated spaces all playing a role in the decision.
Fortunately, Hannah is backed by an agent and Blue Book Artist Management, explaining that she is ‘very lucky to have people who know Edinburgh like the back of their hand’.
She added: “My agent and PR have all been in charge so I haven’t really had much involvement in it, I was kind of told these are your options and they will recommend venues to me but I do believe it’s incredibly difficult.”
Hannah’s 2026 performance is hosted by the Gilded Balloon taking place in their Teviot turret venue, one of Fringe’s most popular venues. Having this stress taken away, it allows Hannah to focus her attention away from planning venue space and towards her actual performance.
Hannah explained that her biggest challenge when preparing for the Fringe is the first draft.
She said: “The biggest challenge for me is the organisation of getting the first draft ready, trying it out and then having to work through it to find out which bits worked and which bits didn’t. Also having to remember a new show every day which is quite difficult.”
She added: “I like my show to feel like an extended club night because that’s what comedy is, that’s where comedy starts. I want it to be entertaining and I want to entertain people because I do find it a bit self-indulgent to be like ‘this is my story and you have to listen’, I just want it to be funny so I do spend a lot of time talking to people and getting people involved in the show.”
Despite winning the Traitors season one, Hannah believes that it didn’t really add to her career, only adding to her popularity on social media where she has 1.4 million followers on TikTok.
With the backing of Claudia Winkleman who said “want to howl with laughter? See Hannah. She is a comedy goddess”, Hannah’s first full month Fringe performance is set to bring in large crowds and add to her growing experience as a popular comedian and personality.
Hannah Byczkowski’s debut stand up show ‘Killer’ will be at the Gilded Balloon Teviot Turret at 5.10pm for tickets go to www.edfringe.com.
Tweet Share on Facebook
