Fringe Review: SNORT @ Pleasance Upstairs

Though Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2019 is coming to a close, New Zealand's  comedy improv show Snort isn’t lacking adrenaline. Snort is the best improv show of the festival this year and will have you weeping, chuckling and yes, snorting about spring onions, snails or whatever the audience has in store to inspire the line up of Kiwi comedians.

Image courtesy of Gaby Jerrard PR

Rose Matafeo, 2018’s Edinburgh comedy award winner, hosts the show and her energy is electric as she invites her fellow stand up comics to relay a personal story centred around a word which one audience member conjures. We had one member decide “snails” were an apt topic for the occasion, and so what unravelled was a sharp and odd anecdote on shells and shell-like personalities.

The fast and furious gang - who included Matafeo, Guy Montgomery, Alice Snedden, Eli Matthewson and Chris Parker - together created improvised sketches in response to the chosen subject and the troupe did not miss a beat. I often find that sketches which are neatly cut rather than tirelessly prolonged pack a punch and fulfil an appetite for improv, but this hour went so quickly and I found myself wanting more time to be entertained by this ridiculous and brilliant show. 

Snort ran until August 24th, and more information can be found on their Ed Fringe page here.