August 14, 2026 at MMonkey Barrel 2
Last year Eric Rushton was in the Monkey Barrel-run Hive bar, which smelled so bad that I left wondering precisely how many monkeys had died in that barrel. This year he’s in the comparatively fragrant Monkey Barrel 2, a larger room that he’s filling effortlessly almost every day.
Rushton won the inaugural Sean Lock award a few years ago, and garnered impressive reviews with his previous few Edinburgh appearances – some say he was robbed of a nomination with last year’s Innkeeper.
I wonder if his increased profile is more down to his excellent social media presence, though. Crowdwork videos are currently in vogue (much to the chagrin of comedy nerds and comedians) and Rushton’s all over the trend. His are slightly different though. I think the one I clicked on was called something like ‘Audience member gets better of terrible comedian.’ Of course that’s not what happened in the video at all, but afterwards my TikTok algorithm gave me pretty much just Rushton for the next two weeks.
His is an unassuming comic persona that makes the reveal of a rapier wit and clever way with a punchline even more effective when it hits. He comes on stage to Rage Against The Machine, which is completely at odds with his low-key delivery and performatively mild manner.
He has an excellent grasp of the pull back and reveal, which can become tired in less skilled hands, and he’ll often deliver a joke that takes a second to settle, and inform us he’s standing his ground until we laugh. Again, this is a device that wouldn’t work as well for many others. His background as a teacher gives him a chance to berate the audience for not paying more attention in GCSE Biology, Maths, and English. It’s a very playful show, in which he prods the audience throughout.
Could Well Be In centres itself around a seemingly inappropriate birthday present, that allows him to talk at length about his family, birthdays and Christmases past, and the many sacrifices his mother had to make while raising him and his seven siblings. Friendship dynamics are also explored, and how his own mental health affects both those situations.
Throughout all this though, he’s planting seeds for a cascade of callbacks with which he brings the show home, tying all the threads and themes up very nicely.
Could Well Be In is a testament to Rushton’s skill, as well as being a testament to his love and admiration for his mother – and I reckon that’s much more important than any Edinburgh Award nomination.
Sarah Stringer