one4review | On 18, Aug 2025

This is Karen Dunbar’s return to the Edinburgh Fringe for the time in almost 2 decades.

Best known as a star of the brilliant Chewin the Fat and the Karen Dunbar show she seemed absolutely thrilled to be back on stage in Edinburgh, performing to packed-out crowds who are clearly just as delighted to see her.

Karen is a bundle of energy as she storms onto the stage and that energy is consistent for the next hour.

We hear hilarious stories of growing up in Ayr in a lower working-class household where whatever was missing in money or comfort was more than made up for in sharp wit and a wicked sense of humour.

I loved the trip back to the highlights of Chewin the Fat and some of Karen’s amazing characters such as the brilliantly uptight Biology teacher who was taken from her own school experiences and how she had told Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill that “Gonnae No Dae That “ was not remotely funny and would never take off, I would hazard a guess they were glad they didn’t listen.

The show is packed with laugh-out-loud tales, from her tongue-in-cheek confessions about a Shein shopping addiction, to the surreal joy of winning a BAFTA for a gaming voiceover, to brutally funny observations about slimming jabs. Her cheeky “Que Sera Sera” routine, lovingly and shamelessly pinched from the late Paul O’Grady, had the audience in absolute stitches.

Karen Dunbar is an hour full of typically Scottish gags and nostalgia with some surprisingly good vocals chucked in, her Fringe comeback is an hour of pure Scottish comedy at its best, nostalgic, quick-witted, and utterly joyful.

****1/2

Reviewed by Lou Heathcote

Just Up The Stairs at Just the Tonic at The Caves

21.05 until 24 August