Edinburgh Fringe Comedy reviews: Rory Marshall | The Mayor and His Daughter

Rory Marshall: Pathetic Little Characters ★★★★☆

Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) until 24 August

Given the column inches prompted by the rise of the toxic manosphere, it's perhaps surprising that more comedians aren't sending up these concerns. But in his basic bloke white t-shirt and jeans throughout, Rory Marshall does so brilliantly in this character comedy showcase, a really strong, multilayered Fringe debut.

When he first makes our acquaintance, AJ seems like any other reality show brainless hunk craving love and television exposure, eminently worthy of ridicule. Yet beyond the flexing and posturing, neurodiverse-coded traits start to show through. And its hilarious imagining the reactions of the show's other participants coping with this wild card in their midst.

A stranger at a party, connected only to the person throwing the bash – and desperate, painfully desperate to ingratiate – is in the best traditions of British cringe comedy, your heart going out in sympathy. By contrast, a sneeringly passive-aggressive barman, snickering and superior in his misogyny and misanthropy, is truly, repellently compelling as takes time out from his scene to directly explain his obnoxiousness. Another standout is a veteran teaching assistant, over-asserting his authority to belittle the teacher running the class, but then displaying a much more sadistic, even psychopathic, old school side.

Marshall's creations are generally just idiots, over-extending themselves beyond the capacity of their brains, fluffing their egos in front of an attentive audience. An ill-briefed, out-of-his-depth police spokesperson, an over-confident confidence coach, or the father who takes his rough and tumble with his son far too literally, these are harmless buffoons. But every so often someone or something really chilling emerges from Marshall's repertoire and the satire is just a little on the nose, capturing some of the very worst aspects of society.

READ MORE: The Best Edinburgh Fringe Comedy 2025: Every show with a four or five star review from The Scotsman so far

The Mayor and His Daughter: A Genuine Appreciation of Comedy ★★★☆☆

Assembly Roxy (Venue 139) until 24 August

The sort of knowing, Fringey show that can only exist within the realms of a festival, The Mayor and His Daughter are a sometimes maddening double act who will delight some audiences and deeply frustrate others.

Playing with tropes of rural isolationism, folk horror and a close, but dysfunctional, central relationship, Ciaran Chillingworth (as the strident Mayor), and Kit Finnie (as his frustrated Daughter) risk appearing cultural snobs for hailing a DVD of Russell Howard's Good News Series Two as their society's founding artefact. Playing stop-start games with the structuring of their sketches, the laughs are chiefly in the deconstruction of their setups, with hints of violence and the macabre eventually becoming overt, some of it really quite visually disturbing.

The variable sightlines in their venue don't assist an act that nevertheless shows little respect for the confines of the stage. And while the pair remain in character throughout, two forces generally pulling in the same direction, but not always, there's enjoyable coercing of the crowd through often inexplicable routines, with their Genuine Appreciation of Comedy having only the faintest relationship to most of the artform currently being performed elsewhere at the festival.

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