“irrepressibly funny… reminiscent of Jim Carrey” ★★★★
Jay Richardson, The Scotsman
“absurdly good… a gloriously daft, energetic hour with lots of big laughs” ★★★★
Veronica Lee, The Daily Mail
“her performance screams ‘star quality’” ★★★★
Steve Bennett, Chortle
“Kate Dolan has what it takes to be one of the greats… a masterclass in what the future of comedy should look like” ★★★★★
Casey Cortez, EdFringe Review
Multi-award-winning comedian and breakout star Kate Dolan brings her third consecutive show to this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe with Trout, for which she recently won the highly coveted Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2026 Director’s Choice Award (chosen by Susan Provan in her final year of a 31-year run as Festival Director and CEO). Kate will be performing at Monkey Barrel 2 from 3rd – 30th August at 8.35pm.
Edinburgh Festival Fringe tickets are on sale now. Full dates and tickets at linktr.ee/thekatedolanshow.
Kate won the coveted Moosehead Prize to produce her new show in Australia, and with the prize money she commissioned a massive, realistic, silicon trout head. With terrifying fish helmet in tow, Kate’s award-winning show unspools the idea that in 2026 being a fish in the river might be nicer than being a woman on land. A wildly physical, superbly crafted hour of absurdist stand-up comedy, Trout brims with dance breaks, off-the-wall music interludes and tangential forays into success, sobriety, womanhood, PMDD and the sheer horrors of having a physical form. All tackled with a ridiculous joke-per-minute count.
One of the best-reviewed shows at last year’s Fringe (British Comedy Guide), Kate’s 2025 show, The Critic, saw her win the Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2025 Golden Gibbo Award for Best Independent Local Artist, making her the first Brit, and first non-Australian in over 20 years, to win the award. It subsequently transferred to the Fringe, where she gained widespread buzz and won The Skinny x Fest Bestie Awards 2025 Breakthrough Act and was nominated for Best Show at the ISH Comedy Awards.
Kate’s critically-acclaimed debut show, A Different Kind of Unhinged, cemented her reputation as a comedic force, saw her win the Adelaide Fringe Emerging Artist Award 2024, profiled in The New York Times: Australia and named as one of the Metro’s ‘Names to Remember from the Fringe’ 2024. Kate was a finalist on the BBC New Comedy Awards (BBC3) in 2025. She created and starred in mini-series History Untold which was picked up and distributed by Grouse House on YouTube (run by Australian sketch legends Aunty Donna). As a live-performer, Kate’s appearances include the Sydney Comedy Festival Gala, Sydney Comedy Festival Fresh Artist Showcase and Best of the Fest: New Class (UK), as well as being selected to perform at the prestigious Melbourne International Comedy Festival for the past three years, and subsequently invited on the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow. Kate was a 2019 Funny Women Regional Finalist, 2023 RAW Comedy State Finalist, 2023 Joke Off Finalist and 2023 Funny Women Content Creator Finalist. Kate also co-hosts the podcast Becoming Best Friends alongside fellow comedian Danielle Walker.
~ends~
EDINBURGH FRINGE LISTINGS INFORMATION
Kate Dolan – Trout
Venue: Monkey Barrel 2
Date & Time: 3rd – 30th August at 8.35pm
Duration: 60 min
More praise for Kate Dolan:
“a thrilling and authentic blast of entertainment from a future star… Kate Dolan: remember her name.” ★★★★
Ashley Davies, Chortle
“A wild assault of jokes, voices, act outs and asides… Where have you been all of
my comedy life?” ★★★★
Evan Beswick, Fest
“A phenomenal emerging comic… she is exactly where she’s meant to be and you should be too, if only to be able to say you were there at the very start.” ★★★★
Jo Laidlaw, The List
“winning over audiences with their unique brand of stand-up comedy… eschews the safety of palatability in an effort to make deeper connections in her comedy”
Mariela Summerhays, The New York Times Australia
Praise for Trout
“Holy moly, what a breath of fresh air Kate Dolan is to the industry…an undisputed festival favourite…Not a single second goes by where Dolan isn’t exploring where she can go next.”
★★★★★
Maddison Verduci, The Funny Tonne
“Dolan struts her stuff in an electric show that blends standup comedy with contemporary dance, grunge rap interludes, Robin Williams-esque vocal impressionism…It exudes a confident, stylistic approach to comedy formed from common tropes, skills, and emotional arcs, beaten into something new and untamed.”
★★★★★
Patrick Meyer, Binge Fringe
“Very rarely can you say you enjoy a comedian in equal measure both when they are talking and when they are not talking…Dolan is the next big thing…Trout is *The Show* of this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival.” ★★★★★
Chenoah Eljin, Theatre Matters
“Trout is a bold, lively departure that demonstrates Dolan pushing well beyond a conventional stand-up format into something more physical, playful, and unpredictable…a performance that’s confident, inventive, and clearly aiming to stretch both her style and the audience’s expectations.”
Myron My, My Melbourne Arts
“If I was to judge a show on laughs-per-minute, this one takes the prize of the Festival so far. I was doubled-up from about halfway through to the end.”
Keith Gow, Theatre First
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For more information / press requests, please contact Chloe Waterhouse at CWaterhouse@avalonuk.com
