AJ Bell’s Fringe on Friday: In Support of The Edinburgh Fringe: Online: 2020
Rachel Fairburn: Maniac (work in progress): Camden Fringe: 2Northdown, London, 2021
London Comedy Allstars: Underbelly Festival, Spiegeltent, Cavendish Square, London, 2022
Always Be Comedy: The Tommyfield pub, Kennington, London, 2022
All Killa No Filla: Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, 2022
Rachel Fairburn: Can I Be Awful? 21 Soho, London, 2022
Vix Leyton’s Comedy Arcade: The Pleasance Theatre, Islington, London, 2022
Always Be Comedy: Sambrook’s Brewery, Wandsworth, London, 2023
In August 2020, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe should have been taking place for three and half weeks. Because of the Coronavirus epidemic, the Fringe was cancelled for the first time in its seventy-three-year history and the creative arts industry, including comedians, suffered badly as a result. Undeterred, the EdFringe website featured several projects to provide support for Fringe acts and to keep the spirit of the Fringe alive. One such project throughout August was Fringe on Friday – an online show featuring Fringe acts and sponsored by innovative investment platforms and stockbroker, AJ Bell. An act of the online Fringe on Friday show that I watched was Manchester-based comedian Rachel Fairburn. Her routine included being single, friendships, her broad Northern accent, and serial killers.
In August 2021, I watched her perform the new material live at 2Northdown in London for the Camden Fringe preparing for her forthcoming tour Maniac and then again as a guest for London Comedy Allstars at the Underbelly Festival in Cavendish Square, London and her debut for Always Be Comedy both in June 2022.
In August 2022, I watched All Killa No Filla live at the Edinburgh Fringe which is a very popular comedy podcast about serial killers performed by Fairburn and Kiri Pritchard McLean. Immensely likeable on stage, Fairburn’s no-nonsense approach to the material won over audiences with hilarious routines and stories.
Fairburn performed her full show Can I Be Awful? at 21 Soho in London in September 2022. The show examined class, especially working-class and middle-class attitudes. The comedian was utterly fearless with the crowd and delivered exceptionally funny routines making for a solid hour of comedy.
The comedian made an inspired guest appearance at Vix Leyton’s Comedy Arcade displaying her quick wit whilst trying to answer questions generated from balls in an arcade machine.
The comic performed new material for Always Be Comedy at Sambrook’s Brewery in Wandsworth that I saw in May 2023. She was extremely funny delighting the audience with her view on relationships.
Fairburn is an extremely confident comedian who is hysterically funny.