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Review: Cambridge Fringe Festival 2024




Two days, seven venues, more than 70 comedians, the 2024 Cambridge Fringe Festival was certainly a massive undertaking for organisers Big Deal Comedy and Commoners’ Comedy, both of whom put on regular comedy nights in the city.

Geoff Norcott on stage at The Portland Arms as part of the 2024 Cambridge Fringe Festival. Picture: Adrian Peel
Geoff Norcott on stage at The Portland Arms as part of the 2024 Cambridge Fringe Festival. Picture: Adrian Peel

The impressive line-up included such top acts as Geoff Norcott, Bobby Mair, Lou Sanders, and Jordan Brookes, but 20 hours of comedy over two days (Saturday, 25-Sunday, 26 May) was too much even for me to sit through, so I popped along to The Portland Arms (the first time I’d been to the venue since 2016) to take in the last three comics on the Sunday evening: Elliot Steel, Jordan Brookes, and Geoff Norcott.

I had only recently discovered Elliot Steel, through videos on YouTube, so I had some idea of what to expect. The 27-year-old (most of the comedians I go and see are never this young!) started brightly and made some very funny and outlandish jokes early on, which I rather liked - especially the bit about having his funeral abroad.

As this was a work-in-progress show, I felt he ‘lost his way’ a little bit and there were some parts that I didn’t really find that funny. I also felt the energy level dipped a little in the middle.

Elliot Steel on stage at The Portland Arms as part of the 2024 Cambridge Fringe Festival. Picture: Adrian Peel
Elliot Steel on stage at The Portland Arms as part of the 2024 Cambridge Fringe Festival. Picture: Adrian Peel

He successfully got things back on track, however, with some rather risqué material which, to be honest, I thought someone in the audience might have a) stood up and challenged/complained about, or b) stormed out in a huff over - or a combination of the two. But thankfully that didn’t happen.

Elliot talked about, among other things, being left wing himself but that he dislikes “liberals “ and “far right” people equally. Personally, I’d rather comics would just tell jokes and let us work out what their political persuasions might be! That said, he finished strongly and overall put in a solid hour.

Next up was Jordan Brookes, one of my favourite comics whom I saw for the first time in London last August. As expected, much of what he did at the Cambridge Fringe Festival I had already seen at last year’s show - but that didn’t make it any less funny or laugh-out-loud enjoyable!

Much of the piece centred around observations on the Titanic disaster which were both thought-provoking and downright hilarious. One thing I noticed that he did more of this time was lose his composure and laugh when telling certain jokes, something he didn’t do when I saw him last.

I absolutely loved his occasionally outrageous, carefully-calculated, off-the-wall performance, though, and can’t recommend him highly enough.

Jordan Brookes is one stand-up comedian I would definitely try and see whenever and wherever I can, and I would put him up there with Tom Stade, Tony Law, and John Robertson as the best comics I’ve seen so far this year.

Jordan Brookes on stage at The Portland Arms as part of the 2024 Cambridge Fringe Festival. Picture: Adrian Peel
Jordan Brookes on stage at The Portland Arms as part of the 2024 Cambridge Fringe Festival. Picture: Adrian Peel

Rounding off the evening was Geoff Norcott, another comedian whom I’ve seen previously. Much has been made of the fact that Geoff is the only right-wing comedian ‘allowed’ on mainstream TV, but thankfully he kept the politics to a minimum, save for one or two acutely-observed comments.

He also reflected on his appearance on Politics Live in September last year, which went viral and subsequently led to the sacking of Laurence Fox and Dan Wootton by GB News.

This was another work-in-progress show but overall I felt it went very well and provided the ideal finale to the 2024 Cambridge Fringe. Geoff said he’d be back on tour in 2025 when “we’ll have a Labour government”.

[Read more: Top names in comedy to appear at this year’s Cambridge Fringe Festival]

Three superb acts, a well-organised event with very friendly and helpful staff, what more could one ask? Roll on Cambridge Fringe Festival 2025!



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