Cool Places
Comedy at the Edinburgh Festival
Pleasance, Edinburgh.
Since the days when Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Allan Bennett had crowds flocking to their satirical Beyond the Fringe shows in the early 1960s, the Edinburgh Festival has been synonymous with comedy. The vast majority of British comics since then have cut their teeth with runs in Edinburgh, and these days the shows at venues such as the Pleasance, Guilded Balloon, Underbelly and Assembly are choked with names familiar from radio, TV and national comedy circuits. The influential Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards (previously the Perrier Award) is given to the best act each year, and down the years has helped to propel the careers of Stephen Fry, Frank Skinner, Steve Coogan and the League of Gentlemen, among others.
