We are also recommending Three To See every day of the Festival, also here in the bulletin and online. Plus, if you haven't checked them out already, don't forget the 72 shows Caro recommended ahead of the Festival, all in handy sets of three.

And finally, we are talking to all our favourite Fringe people this festival too. Both those onstage with the Caro Meets and Chris Meets interviews, and those working backstage for our brand new website TW:DIY. Check them all out!

John Robertson: Sweaty, Sexy, Party Party | Just The Tonic at The Tron | 10.20pm (pictured)
A Fringe veteran and constant favourite of the TW review team. Indeed he's been making fans, achieving high acclaim and gathering good numbers of starry critiques from our reviewers for many, many years now, which is why we handed him one of our Editors' Awards in 2016. Basically, always recommended.

Sofie Hagen Tries Something | Laughing Horse @ The Counting House | 3.30pm
Sofie Hagen has won a multitude of acclaim for her Edinburgh shows over the years, not least from the TW team. It was in 2015 that we handed her one of our Editors' Awards. Meanwhile in her 5/5 review at Fringe 2016 we noted "her masterful delivery often reflects her confident ownership of her own pain, and she's brilliant at doing 'creepy' jokes without actually making people uncomfortable". Go see!

Wil Greenway: Either Side Of Everything | Underbelly Bristo Square | 2.50pm
When we presented Wil with an Editors' Award at Fringe 2016 we noted the kinds of words our reviewers have used to describe his various shows over the years: witty, beautifully crafted, wistful, impeccable, hilarious, heartbreaking, hugely entertaining, life-affirming, honest... and weird. We continue to love his eloquence, his humour, his polished, well thought out performances.

The Bear (Pins And Needles Productions)
You know that way when a polar bear pops in your daughter's bedroom window then spends the day elusively pottering round the house eating and wrecking stuff, defecating all about the place and... no? Well, anyway, that's the precis of 'The Bear', rendered here from the original Raymond Briggs book through song, snappy scene changes and, in large scale puppet form, the eponymous bear. It's all very energetic and committed, with some scatological audience interaction. Less clear was the effectiveness as a piece of storytelling, whilst - and, judging by the wailing cacophony around me, I wasn't alone in thinking this - the 3+ billing is a bit low on the age range scale. Older ones seemed to grin and Bear it just fine, however.
Pleasance Courtyard until 27 Aug.
tw rating 3/5 | Bruce Blacklaw

COMEDY

zazUtinany (United Agents)
The zazUvians are back, and in a departure from their usual sketch-based shows, they need the audience to help them decide if their green vegetable costume is a cucumber or a courgette, in their version of the Olympics. We pick our teams and then have to battle it out to score points in games including human Buckaroo, catch the monkey biscuits and a flying objects memory game, to name but a few. There's a guest performer and the games can change each night, so no two editions of 'zazUtinany' will be the same. With Kathy the dour scorekeeper and the host who can, and will, add or deduct points at any time, it's anyone's guess how things will pan out, but I can promise that it's unashamed fun.
Underbelly Bristo Square, until 12 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [Daisy Malt]

Graham Dickson: Timber (Graham Dickson)
Set in a post-#MeToo Hollywood, this character comedy is framed as a Netflix documentary, exploring the mystery of the men who remained after the women left, all narrated by the investigator. Searching for 'The Bear', a washed-up former TV show host, she encounters many other caricatures, from an agent with a penchant for playing hide and seek, a fitness obsessive with an unusual diet and an unexpected helper who claims to be the last feminist in Hollywood. Each is well-defined and are of a level of absurdity that Dickson plays so well. It's the finale that is the least successful part of the show, bringing an air of normality to what was initially so wonderfully nonsensical.
Underbelly Cowgate, until 26 Aug.
tw rating 3/5 | [Daisy Malt]

Jordan Brookes: Bleed (Fight In The Dog)
Everything begins fairly benignly, the first third or so much more 'normal' than I've ever seen him, but it becomes apparent that this is all part of the act as he slowly descends into chaos. A break up because of a joke he used in his previous show consumes him, and the complexity of why it happened, and his trouble with relationships, seems a constant battle. He's getting inside our heads, giving us a glimpse of what it's like to be inside his. A clever trick is used to try to take us there, and it's a headfuck in more ways than one. This is surreal concept comedy that doesn't just push boundaries, it obliterates them - how it makes you feel is up to you.
Pleasance Courtyard, until 26 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [Daisy Malt]

Wil Greenway: Either Side Of Everything (NJC Presents)
Taking us on a journey through time, Wil Greenway pieces together stories within stories that all lead up to one key moment. The meandering process is all to build up the layers that emphasise that we are all our own story with so many unique individual parts. Quirky descriptions of each of the characters, be it humans, dogs or beetles, bring them to life and pull you in deeper as you get lost in the tale. He speaks and interacts with the audience as if we are friends gathered together, playfully bringing people in through games of 'Would You Rather...?' Musical accompaniment and occasional distractions all add to the charm, creating an uplifting experience full of humour that's hard to forget.
Underbelly Bristo Square, until 26 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [Daisy Malt]

David Kay (David Kay / The Stand Comedy Club)
David Kay is all laid back, self-deprecating low energy, kind of like a Scottish Emo Phillips. Amusing lyricism and gentle absurdity abound, with a sideline in purposeful anticomedy, consciously ending bits in anticlimactic fashion, dropping threads which may or may not be developed later, and several bits about scones. Foolishly improbable anecdotes involving Paul Oakenfold, Pablo Escobar, Mary Berry and Andy Murray demonstrate a winning absurdist streak, particularly in how he gets from cooked tomatoes to fake news and the ridiculousness of popular plebiscites. Fun as it is, it does stretch slightly thinly over the hour. But, if you're looking to hear multiple slices of scone-based comedy this is literally (I think!) the only show in town.
The Stand, until 12 Aug.
tw rating 3/5 | Bruce Blacklaw

Demi Lardner: I Love Skeleton (Laughing Stock Productions)
Finding comedy in everyday things is not easy. Demi Lardner, however, appears to have mastered it. The simplest things are flipped and her hour of absurd sketch comedy unleashed utter weirdness that had the audience in fits of laughter. She comes out with things that are so unexpected - sometimes even to her, it seems - that tickled all of us. I think most people were in tears at one point or another, me included. In a show reminiscent of the oeuvre of fellow Aussies Aunty Donna, there are quick one-liners, musical interludes and utterly baffling sketches with no context - but that's what makes them so funny. If you like your comedy weird and to induce so much laughter it feels like a work out, Lardner should be at the top of your list.
Assembly George Square Studios, until 26 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [Daisy Malt]

Nick Elleray: It's Been Emotional (Nick Elleray)
Gently affable Aussie Nick Elleray sets out his stall upfront, namely late afternoon laconic stand-up reflecting on middle aged masculinity. Whether or not you are male or indeed middle-aged, you are warmly invited into his affectionately questioning depiction of his male-dominated upbringing, seasoned with a fine variety of cracking good jokes. There are occasional pauses to check the set list and so perhaps the joins between bits aren't as seamless as they might be, but that'll improve over the run; and besides, when said bits are, for the most part, as good and as well-delivered as Elleray's, then what does it matter? It's early days, but if I see a more life-affirming bit of downbeat deadpan comedy this Fringe, I'll be... well, you know.
Just The Tonic at The Grassmarket Centre.
tw rating 4/5 | Bruce Blacklaw

MUSIC

A Really Short Introduction To Scotland's Piano Music (Christopher Guild)
This was the first time this enjoyable programme had been presented at the Fringe, the only concert of Scottish classical music at this year's Festivals. It included a world premiere of excerpts from Francis George Scott's 'Intuitions' and revealed a colourful seam of contemporary piano music. Christopher Guild is a strenuous advocate of Scottish composers and played this varied programme with an emphatic, ringing style giving the resonance of the instrument full, rich rein. Naturally, the repertoire included Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and Judith Weir; Sir James Macmillan's spikily challenging early Piano Sonata contrasted arrestingly with Ronald Stevenson's ' Hebridean Escape', a complex, bombastic portrayal of changing moods of a dangerous sea and a triumphant finale to this wonderful concert.
Stockbridge Church, 7 Aug.
tw rating 5/5 | [Louise Rodgers]

The Sorries (The Sorries)
Quite unexpectedly, I found I knew all the words to all the verses of 'The Wild Rover' (the clean version), and this concert really was a voyage of self discovery led by our amiable guides, The Sorries, who are so much more than a Corries tribute band! If any visitors want to meet the locals, get yourselves along to one of their gigs - we like them and the instant, happy, pop-up seventies folk- club ambiance they create. We gleefully sang along to tales of rebellion, execution and war particularly the poignant 'Green Fields of France' and the beautiful love song, 'Wild Mountain Thyme'. Special mention has to go to their entertaining duelling banjos style rock riffs battle. Folkie fun for all!
Quaker Meeting House, until 25 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [Louise Rodgers]