Fringe 2011 comedy: 5 shows about parents

Featuring Scott Capurro, Tom Rosenthal, Catie Wilkins, Des Bishop and Jack Whitehall

This article is from 2011.

Scott Capurro

Scott Capurro

In 2009, the San Francisco comic wrote movingly and warmly about the death of his mother, Donna. Now he’s turned his pain into Who are the Jocks? a show about his ‘best friend and coke dealer’.
Pleasance Dome, 556 6550, 6–29 Aug (not 16), 8pm, £9.50–£10.50 (£8–£9). Previews until 5 Aug, £5.

Tom Rosenthal

The star of Channel 4’s Friday Night Dinner believes he had a charmed childhood, growing up as the son of a well-known ITV sports pundit. Intriguingly, Welsh comic Elis James also has some routines about Jim Rosenthal. Fight, fight.
Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 6-29 Aug (not 16), 9.30pm, £9.50-£12 (£8-£10.50). Previews until 5 Aug, £5.

Catie Wilkins

With A Chip off the Odd Block, this rising star reveals her father to be a robotic sort who shunned some swinging sixties free lovin’ to train as an accountant and dubbed JFK’s assassination as ‘a bit of a whodunit’.
Udderbelly’s Pasture, 0844 545 8252, 6-29 Aug (not 15), 8pm, £9.50–£10.50 (£8.50-£9.50). Previews until 5 Aug, £6.

Des Bishop

After last year’s emotional triumph with My Dad Was Nearly James Bond, the US-Irish comic revisits a show which will overflow with added poignancy given that the subject died in February.
Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 5–14 Aug, 9.10pm, £14 (£12.50). Preview 4 Aug, £11.

Jack Whitehall

Could Jack be the only lad to actually appear with their dad on stage this year? Papa Michael shows up to no doubt embarrass his boy with Back Chat as they attempt to broaden each other’s horizons.
Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 24–28 Aug, 5.10pm, £11–£12.50 (£9.50–£11).