{"id":337367,"date":"2025-08-12T03:04:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T03:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/337367\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T03:04:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T03:04:11","slug":"luke-mcqueen-comedians-comedian-review-lord-of-mischief-gatecrashes-the-popular-podcast-edinburgh-festival-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/337367\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke McQueen: Comedian\u2019s Comedian review \u2013 lord of mischief gatecrashes the popular podcast | Edinburgh festival 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Comedian\u2019s Comedian podcast<\/a>, in which comic Stuart Goldsmith interviews one standup per episode, has now featured more than 500 guests. But never the tricksy comedian Luke McQueen. So this show opens with a real (or is it?) phone call to Goldsmith, during which McQueen demands to know why he\u2019s never been on the podcast. The answer is of little consequence. McQueen has a sample of Goldsmith\u2019s voice so he can create a compliant AI version of the podcast host and record his own episode live on stage.<\/p>\n

McQueen\u2019s past work on stage and TV has delighted in playing with the truth. He pretended to be the scorned former double-act partner of Jack Whitehall<\/a>, lured audiences into a show on the false promise that Frankie Boyle would be there, and publicly debased himself to win back a fictional girlfriend.<\/p>\n

His persona, simultaneously high-status and desperate for approval, returns in Comedian\u2019s Comedian, while McQueen explores AI, ambition and the nature of artistic vulnerability in deliciously fresh ways.<\/p>\n

The conceit is that he wants this interview to showcase him as a \u201cmisunderstood artist\u201d, but his AI interviewer has other ideas, and undermines him with questions about his lack of fame, family and driving licence. There is tension between the pressure for comedians to bare their souls to achieve success, and McQueen\u2019s conviction that true bravery means taking risks that might not pay off. And it\u2019s all cut through with enjoyably grotesque jokes about McQueen\u2019s online activities, a memorable segment featuring alter ego Professor Franklin, and an uncomfortable encounter with McQueen\u2019s teenage self.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a heady mix of introspection and mischief as McQueen pulls the rug multiple times, teasing that we might finally get to see behind the metaphorical (and at one point, literal) mask. Directed by Jordan Brookes<\/a>, it\u2019s relentless fun from a master of ambiguity.<\/p>\n

At Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh<\/a>, until 24 August
All our Edinburgh festival reviews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Comedian\u2019s Comedian podcast, in which comic Stuart Goldsmith interviews one standup per episode, has now featured more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-337367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115013580706322629","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}