Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2023: Frankie Boyle delivers a masterclass in comedy not for the faint-hearted

If you want to enjoy a relaxing and pleasant Fringe show, legendary Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle is not the show for you, thanks to his hard-hitting comedy, attacking political and public figures with his no holds barred put-downs.

Boyle is back in Edinburgh for the Fringe this year, performing his already sold-out Lap of Shame show at the Assembly Rooms Music Hall, August 3-13 and 17-18 at 6.20pm, as well as on August 15 at 3.15pm at the Assembly Hall.

His show last Saturday was standard Boyle, with anyone and everyone in the public eye taken to town by the Glaswegian funnyman, with the UK Government the main target of his comedy ire. He had the audience in fits of laughter with a claim that current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would lose a cage fight with Mary Berry, before turning his fire to Home Secretary Suella Braverman and former Home Secretary Priti Patel for their treatment of refugees arriving in the UK.

Other public figures in Boyle’s firing line included US President Joe Biden, who he said was “like a laptop on four percent”. Before saying that LGBTQ is just England striker Harry Kane’s alphabet.

Most of his set was far too strong to repeat here, but needless to say the sold out audience was in the palm of his hand as Boyle tore into much of the political establishment across the world, and no subject deemed taboo for the former New World Order TV show host. With Northern Irish political party the DUP labelled “the political wing of the old testament” by Boyle.

He also used his show to attack political and press voices who criticise his style of comedy, explaining that “it’s just a show”, adding that Lee Evans doesn’t spend his life rolling about like he does on stage, just as he doesn’t spend every day shouting and swearing at the walls.

As the hour-long show came to an end, audience members risked the stand-up’s notorious wrath despite the warnings signposted across the venue that if you left the auditorium you couldn’t return, with many desperate to get to the toilet. In true Frankie Boyle style he didn’t hold back his anger and character assassinations of the poor people who just couldn’t hold it in until the end.

Boyle finished on one of his iconic monologues, this time about the rapture and how he thinks the world will end, with yet again, the details too strong to repeat here.

Another Frankie Boyle show not for the faint-hearted, although the crowd knew what they were getting and lapped up his full throttle performance delivered in his own unique style, with a standing ovation at the end from those who didn’t make a run for the toilet.