August 13, 2026 at Assembly George Square Studios, Studio Four
Emma Holland reverses the normal order of Fringe stand-up shows, in which the tragedy happens at the beginning, and she spends the rest of the hour making it funny. This isn’t a spoiler, as it’s in the title. Holland plays with the “Tragedy + Time” idea, spinning her tragedy into comedy exactly as the title suggests.
So much of that comedy comes from Holland’s physical presence, her skill in pulling off a glare that challenges the audience to find her tragedy funny, or possibly to fail to find her tragedy funny. Or possibly you can’t win either way, and that, in itself, is funny.
It’s a structured hour, with a clear narrative and a stage set that’s shifted around in clever ways, and a PowerPoint to keep us on track. It’s got a nice callback finale. It’s got Google Maps on the big screen to make sure the audience knows exactly where everything is, and physical demonstrations of the events, and just a hint of rhythmic rapping. But underneath all the (entertaining) frills it has a solid narrative arc, and underneath that, it has funny jokes that make all the rest easier to digest.
She asks big questions about what types of trauma should matter, why grief hits us the way it does, and why so much comes out in anger. She answers many of these with a small stuffed bird and an ever-shifting table lamp. She captures some specifics in these answers that really resonate.
Dave Baillie