Standup stars such as Omid Djalili, Nish Kumar, Andrew Maxwell, Mark Thomas and Rachel Parris are among those set to attack, and several parody shows will focus on Boris Johnson’s government. But fringe performers are torn about how to respond to turbulent times in a way that entertains audiences. Following the cancellation of the BBC’s long-running satirical panel show Mock the Week, the public’s appetite for straight political comedy is being challenged. Djalili, who is returning to Edinburgh for a series of solo shows, is convinced that the mainstream broadcast channels have lost interest in serious topical material. “Political satire on TV is dead,” he told the Observer, ahead of his Newtown Theater run. “Mock the Week kept it on life support for 17 years.” Left-wing political comic Mark Thomas was full of rage on stage Thursday. He’s even told Tory voters not to come on his shows and offers plenty of personal argument in his act. Liz Truss’s brain, he told the audience, could be “hit by a layer of memory foam”. “If he thinks Nicola Sturgeon is attention seeking, then what is Boris Johnson – a cry for help?” Other comedians are less confident about injecting anger into their jokes in case they alienate viewers looking for a good laugh. Jo Caulfield, who appeared on the stand, was always wary of putting her politics into her stuff. “We are in such strange times. I’m angry, so I figure I can’t be funny about it. But others find a way.” Posters for at least three fringe shows – NewsRevue, Boris the Third and Boris Live at Five – feature the looming face of Johnson, who has lost none of his crowd-pulling recognition factor, even among his detractors. Playwright Jonathan Maitland, author of Boris Live at Five, observed that some haunts are withdrawing from the political arena. “There was a real reluctance among the heavy hitters to satirize the obvious targets of Trump and Johnson. The argument is that it is beyond parody. But, as the American performer Harry Shearer says, if you take that line, you accept defeat.” His own show, starring Will Burton as the prime minister, takes the form of a question and answer session with Britain’s outgoing leader. “But the pessimists have a point,” Maitland said. “It’s hard to make it work. And even in political drama, there’s less willingness to be brutal. Maybe that’s why Mock the Week got canned. We are in the era of the good, not the bad.” Another political writer, Bert Tyler-Moore, who co-created TV series The Windsors and is helping to write new series Spitting Image, is in Edinburgh with What the Heart Wants, his show about Woody Allen’s damaged reputation and by Frank Sinatra. He believes the taste for hard political humor will return. “People keep asking how you fool these people. Well, in Spitting Image we hang them with the rope they’ve given us. We’re basically just pointing the finger at them.” Tyler-Moore’s own preference, he said, is satirical drama, such as his work on the royal soap opera parody The Windsors. “We would slip in facts like how much they were paid on the civil list. This meant that our show could be enjoyed by both monarchists and republicans. Straight political posturing can be boring. There’s nothing worse than an angry comedian yelling at you, pointing out the blindingly obvious.” Die-hard fans of partisan politics will already have bought tickets to Forde’s stand-up show Clowns to the Left of me, Jokers to the Right, as well as commentator Ayesha Hazarika or Michael Spicer and his other popular antics on The Room Next door. But Nish Kumar, who will perform in Edinburgh at the end of the festival, fears there are signs of “political fatigue” among performers and audiences. “People should remain outraged, but my concern is that they were beaten into submission,” he said. Nish Kumar: “People should remain outraged, but my concern is that they were beaten into submission.” Photo: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian The cure for political fatigue is to speak from personal experience, according to Tom Mayhew. On the sidelines of performing his solo show, Trash Rich, and organizing a concert for national poverty charity Turn2us, Mayhew will focus on the impact of Britain’s economic problems. “It’s a bloody weird time, it’s true, but it’s certainly possible to make it fun,” he said. “Especially if you’re not someone who has only read about these topics. When I saw these older political comedians, like Ben Elton, I wouldn’t enjoy them as much as people talking about real-life things.” Mayhew, 30, who is best known for his BBC Radio 4 series Tom Mayhew is Benefit Scum, said that, for him, the “cost of living crisis is real”. “I’m going through it, and my parents and my siblings are going through it. At the end of my set in Edinburgh, I say my nephews have free school meals and I realize it might be the first time anyone in the audience has met someone with a family like that.’ Kenyan-born British comedian Njambi McGrath, who performs at the Pleasance, argues that deep political turmoil will continue to fuel good comedy. Rishi Sunak’s suggestion that unpatriotic rhetoric should be controlled can only add another log to the fire, he believes. “The stricter a government is, the funnier the satire becomes. It can only thrive inside rooms away from the meddling hands of government,” he said. “Ultimately, banning comedy only seals ridicule. Banning satire is the last door to democracy and the first to autocracy.” This article was amended on 7 August 2022 to correct some personal information.
