We’re back at the Fringe! 10 years (calendar) of this nonsense. Couldn’t be happier starting this year with a debut hour I’ve been hotly anticipating for a while now, from Abbie Edwards. I first saw Abbie a couple of years ago at Party in Bristol (RIP [to Party, not the city of Bristol]), and Alasdair and I were instantly smitten with an immediately defined comedic voice and natural off the wall instincts (spending, for example, most of her set insisting she’d been Big-ged a la Tom Hanks in Big). Knee Touch is a very fun debut hour, where her personality shines through beautifully in an ode to yearning and the awfulness of liking someone. There are theatrical monologues, a lot of Messenger screenshots (what luck, what horror, for this generation to have easy access to every nascent bit of relationship development), and even some life drawing artwork that drew a huge laugh from me. She bonded with Hazel over the indignity of forgetting to put one’s retainer in, and prompted Andy to provide a meaningful definition of the distinction between kissing and snogging. My only disappointment was to not see as much of the comic invention I’d seen of Abbie before, this being a somewhat straighter stand-up than I was hoping for, but I’m confident this will come in time. God it sounds like a school report. Still, an exciting talent to keep an eye on.