The Edinburgh Fringe has barely packed away all the pop-up bars and folding chairs, but the Scottish comedy circuit pauses for no one. From 19 September to 4 October, Aberdeen Performing Arts and Aberdeen Inspired take over hosting duties, rolling out three weekends of live performance across the Lemon Tree, the Music Hall, and His Majesty’s Theatre.
It may be smaller than the Fringe (true of every other comedy festival in the world), but there’s plenty to choose from. Here are six shows we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to you, in no particular order…
Alasdair Beckett-King: King of Crumbs
Venue: Lemon Tree
Date: Wednesday, 23 September
If it is whimsy you are after, Alasdair Beckett-King—ABK to his friends—is the master you’ve been seeking. Awarding King of Crumbs a solid four stars at the Fringe back in 2025, we found him in typically fine fettle, auburn locks flowing over corduroy shoulders as he holds forth on everything from “branding for birds” to “the dangers of millennial nostalgia.”
Beckett-King is a self-proclaimed “comedian and philosopher” (and who are we to disagree?), giving oat milk packaging a hard time whilst extolling the socialist virtues of fairy lights. Backed by his trusty projector screen and an enviable talent for visual humour, his set flits with a lovely, unhurried cadence from topic to topic, arming itself with “piquant call-backs to dispense when least expected.” It is gentle, smart, and absurdly funny.
Booking Link: https://www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/whats-on/aberdeen-comedy-festival-2026-alasdair-beckett-king-king-of-crumbs/
Craig Hill: You’re Not Even Safe Up the Back
Venue: Lemon Tree
Date: Friday, 25 September
Craig Hill remains one of the most reliable live wires on the circuit. Reviewing his latest Fringe run for theQR, critic Cath Coutts handed him a well-earned five stars, watching him boogie onto the stage in his trademark black kilt, boots, and boundless energy before launching into a “cheerful but smutty routine (this is not a show to take your church-going granny to).”
While purists occasionally moan that Hill should rely more on a structured routine, Coutts rightly argued that his genius lies entirely in his unscripted crowd work. He reads a room in seconds, picking out victims with an affection so sharp it borders on surgery. As Cath put it, “the content is not just close to the bone – it drills through the bone and comes out the other side.” There is a reason Hill has been a Scottish favourite for decades: he delivers a laugh-out-loud evening without fail.
Booking Link: https://www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/whats-on/craig-hill-youre-not-even-safe-up-the-back-aberdeen-comedy-festival-2026/
Mark Thomas: 40 in Stand-Up Years
Venue: Lemon Tree
Date: Thursday, 24 September
You simply do not carve out a forty-year reputation in this game without being a standout performer. We caught Mark Thomas in spectacular form last year in his five-star solo drama Ordinary Decent Criminal, where his handling of the text was nothing short of superb, bringing an entire prison block of characters to life through “masterful shifts in both accent and physicality.”
His comic timing has never been in question, but what makes Thomas essential viewing is his equal grasp of both pathos and bathos. In 40 in Stand-Up Years, he reflects on four decades of agitprop, righteous fury, and genuine laughs. It is a rare chance to spend an evening with a veteran who has spent his life challenging authority, with work still fundamentally “underpinned by a belief in the power of rebellion.”
Booking Link: https://www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/whats-on/mark-thomas-40-in-stand-up-years-aberdeen-comedy-festival-2026/
Larry Dean: Hellbent
Venue: Music Hall
Date: Saturday, 3 October
Larry Dean isn’t the most nominated Scottish comedian at the Fringe in recent years by accident. In my recent Edinburgh Inquirer investigation into the mechanics of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, former panel chair Stephen Armstrong singled out the Glaswegian as a textbook example of how homegrown acts can cut through an elite global field. As Armstrong observed, Dean broke past the judges’ resistance to standard club banter by subverting expectations—baiting the room with stripped-down wide-boy gags before pivoting into a nuanced, vulnerable narrative about his sexuality.
Bringing Hellbent to the Music Hall, Dean is operating at the peak of his craft. He knows precisely how to construct a show with real thematic spine without letting the gag rate drop for a second. If you appreciate comedy that marries athletic, rubber-faced clowning with genuine storytelling craft, this is an essential ticket.
Booking Link: https://www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/whats-on/larry-dean-hellbent-aberdeen-comedy-festival-2026/
Janet Street-Porter Is Still Off the Leash at 80!
Venue: Lemon Tree
Date: Thursday, 1 October
Well, it’s Janet Street-Porter. Few figures in British media have had as colourful, combative, or unapologetic a career. How she shapes up as a conventional stand-up comedian remains to be seen, but absolutely no one could ever accuse the woman of lacking gumption.
From editing national broadsheets to decades of terrorising daytime television panel shows, Street-Porter has spent her entire adult life saying the quiet parts out loud. At 80, she is hardly going to start mellowing now. Expect an acid-tongued romp through four decades of media spats, Fleet Street gossip, and contrarian opinions, delivered by someone who genuinely could not care less whether you agree with her or not.
Booking Link: https://www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/whats-on/janet-street-porter-is-still-off-the-leash-at-80-2026/
The Steamie
Venue: His Majesty’s Theatre
Date: Tuesday, 29 September – Saturday, 3 October
Tony Roper’s 1988 STV adaptation was a Hogmanay staple in Scottish households like mine growing up, but its natural home will always be the stage. Set in a 1950s Glasgow wash-house on Old Year’s Night, it captures a vanishing working-class community with warmth, rhythm, and just enough melancholy to keep the sentimentality honest.
This acclaimed touring production cannot be accused of a lack of ambition in the casting department, breathing fresh vocal life and theatrical muscle into Mrs Culfeathers, Magrit, and the rest. It is a genuine Scottish classic that balances earthy, wash-house patter with a lingering sense of social change, and it thoroughly deserves a full house at His Majesty’s.
Booking Link: https://www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/whats-on/the-steamie/
That makes six recommendations by my count, so that’s your lot. I spent a few happy years in Aberdeen as a student, without the benefit of a comedy festival. So get out and support this one! That’s all I’ve got; go away now.
All Images: Aberdeen Comedy Festival – credit Robin Mair
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