Nicholas Parsons’ Happy Hour: Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, 2005
Play: Talk Radio: Underbelly, Bristo Square, Edinburgh, 2006
Play: True West: Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, 2006
Play: Killer Joe: Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, 2007
After Hours Comedy: Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, 2008
Late ‘n’ Live: Gilded Balloon Teviot, Edinburgh, 2008
Play: The School For Scandal: Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, 2009
AAARRRGGGHHH!!! It’s The Bollock Factor: The Malcolm Hardee Awards Show: Gilded Balloon Teviot, Edinburgh, 2009
Best of The Fest 2011: Assembly Hall, Edinburgh, 2011
Mervyn Stutter’s Pick of The Fringe 20th Anniversary Gala: Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, 2012
Frank Skinner and Friends: Noel Coward Theatre, London, 2012
The Very Best of The Fest 2012: Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, 2012
The Best of Banana Cabaret: The Bedford Arms, Balham, 2013
The Best of The Comedy Store: The Comedy Store, London, 2014
Headliners Comedy Club: George IV pub, Chiswick, London, 2016
Play: Hughie: Gilded Balloon Teviot, Edinburgh, 2019
Up The Creek Saturday Night Comedy: Up The Creek, Greenwich, London, 2019
Headliners Comedy Mayfest: George IV pub, Chiswick, London, 2021
Downstairs at The Kings Head 40th Anniversary Show: The Kings Head pub, Crouch End, London, 2023
Canadian actor and comedian Phil Nichol is an Edinburgh Festival Fringe favourite. Every year he is involved in several shows from theatre to wild comedy and I have seen him perform in plays and deliver manic stand-up. He created (with Maggie Inchley) the Comedians Theatre Company which have staged a number of plays at the Edinburgh Fringe over the years (ones I have seen are Talk Radio in 2005 with Eric Bogosian, Stephen K Amos and Nichol, True West (with Adam Hills and Brendan Burns in 2006) , Killer Joe with Tony Law and Nichol in 2007 and The School For Scandal with Lionel Blair, Marcus Brigstocke, Amos and Nichol in 2009).
As a comedian, Nichol is wild, unexpected and manic. His performances have been exhausting to watch and a guest, he has frequently taken over a show. Solo, he is outrageous, daring, frustrated and exuberant. An absolute master at his craft and well worth seeing.
For the Comedian’s Theatre Company, Nichol starred alongside Mike McShane one of playwright Eugene O’Neill’s last short plays that I saw at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2019. The play illustrated how lives are shaped by meeting people and the acting and script were riverting.
The zany, outrageous and wild comedian displayed his extraordinary skills at Up The Creek Comedy Club that I saw in December 2019. The performer exhausted all the comedy he could find to make the late-night audience laugh and his talent is immense.
Due to the worldwide pandemic, two years later, Nichol was back live, in front of an audience for Headliners Comedy Mayfest. Running around the stage like a man possessed, the energy from Nichol’s performance was extraordinary as he was determined to make the audience laugh out loud with shocking and hilarious stories and songs.
Nichol was the headline act for Downstairs at The Kings Head 40th Anniversary Show that I watched in April 2023. Sitting right on the front row, I became part of his routine and the object of his affections as he sang his crowd-pleasing rock and roll parody songs, ferociously twanging his guitar, at dauntingly close quarters.
On stage, Nichol is utterly fearless, confident and his comedy knows no bounds. A fantastic performer determined to make an audience laugh.