Ivo Graham: Grand Designs

Taskmaster’s yardstick for failure returns for his tenth run at the Pleasance. A recap:

The Comedy Zone (Cabaret Bar, 2010): drinking games, driving tests, and Josh Widdicombe on afterwards

Binoculars (Cellar, 2013): Stereophonics, Walkers Sensations, and living with gran

Bow Ties & Johnnies (That, 2014): thank you letters, school magazines, and an actual girlfriend

No Filter (Beside, 2015): Birthday pokes, broken Nokias and Eddie Redmayne

Educated Guess (Beneath, 2017): Weakest Link, frosted glass, and the 650 MPs

Motion Sickness (Cabaret Bar, 2018): Go Ape, a proposal, and a second hand fridge

The Game of Life (Forth, 2019): babies, boules, and bloodbaths at the dentist

My Future, My Clutter (One, 2022): Zoom risottos, childhood short stories, and nuclear fallout at Peppa Pig World

Organised Fun (Beyond, 2023): Traitors, trumps, and treading water through trivia

And now, Grand Designs, a fast and furious return to what Ivo does best: exquisitely articulated updates on a relentlessly chaotic life. Navigating the increasingly three-dimensional challenges of modern parenthood, running late for trains and planes and actual marathons, and laying out as many deckchairs as he can on the sinking ship of the Fringe. A manic, fate-tempting dissection of the gulf between his expectations and his reality, in a show where you will laugh with him, and laugh at him, and laugh a lot.