Comedy is one of the trickiest things to review, as tastes tend to vary wildly. More so when it comes to shows that rely heavily on improv or a loose set of rules; these are shows that essentially showcase a performer’s skill on multiple levels, and reviews tend to focus on how good an artist is at navigating chaos. Sometimes a show is so wild and unpredictable it’s like trying to pin down smoke.
Which brings us to Chris Grace’s latest show, 27 Hours (Works in Progress), which is less smoke and more bottled lightning. Grace is perhaps best known to STARBURST readers for his work on the comedy channel Dropout.TV (formerly College Humour) and his work Chris Grace, as Scarlett Johansson. He’s a highly experienced improv comedian as well as a sitcom star. He has a long list of credits as a writer/producer/director, etc. Which is a long-winded way of saying that he really, really knows what he’s doing. And yet, the premise of his show is still quite a flex.
The idea behind 27 Hours (Works in Progress) is that Grace will write, produce and perform a whole new one-hour comedy show for every day of 2025’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Each show has its own theme; one show might be inspired by bad weather and be called Storms, another might be a frank discussion of the comedian’s diabetes and be called Sugar. Other shows have included a showcase of other talents or been inspired by space opera. Fundamentally, the only thing you know you’re going to get when walking into this show is the creative presence and power of Chris Grace.
And that turns out to be enough. 27 Hours is something of a power move; a remarkable comic talent showing off just exactly how good they are at making comedy happen. Much in the way that Iron Man was able to make his powered armour “in a cave with a box of scraps”, Chris Grace is able to reliably create a fantastic hour’s worth of entertainment with minimal preparation and his own raw skill. (As well as decades worth of industry experience, naturally.) Brilliant, impressive and extremely funny.
27 Hours is an incredible show, and something of a must-see experience. Some of these shows may well become bigger, more polished projects in the future, but if you want to be able to claim that you saw it first, you’ll have to travel to Edinburgh this August. A unique and incredible show.
You can get tickets for the show here, and find out more about Chris Grace here.
