Where Are All the Tall Grandmas?
★★★★★ A Perfect Hour
Monkey Barrel Comedy (Venue 515): Wed 5 – Sun 30 Aug 2026
Review by Ed Boulter-Comer
Where Are All the Tall Grandmas? is peak Fringe. None of it should work. But such is the geeky charm and dogged curiosity of Lou Wall that their audience is happy to follow them on the oddest of sociological investigations.
Edinburgh is a scientific city and Wall dances through a misfiring PhD thesis of a show, desperate to find a reason why society is swamped exclusively with little old ladies.
Lou Wall. Pic: Rachel Sherlock
From their hilarious entrance onwards, the audience knows they are in very safe, if mildly obsessive, hands. Wall knows their stuff and they know their audience. The banging catchiness of the title song has the audience singing along to it in seconds, shaming at least 80% of Eurovision entries, and is over too soon.
Not content with using multimedia to merely illustrate their story, Wall is more in dialogue with their PowerPoint display. The audience needs to keep one eye on both and there are moments when the screens are just as full of personality and zip as the storyteller between them.
warm-hearted and theatrical
At the heart of this madcap hour is an open and reflective exploration of growing up as a child with a physical difference (Wall self-proclaims as a 6’5” adult). Woven in with this is a touching journey through female intergenerational heritage and attachment. With a few swipes at the bro-sphere along the way, this is a warm-hearted and theatrical comedy but not without its shocks.
Wall leaves their audience feeling intelligent, surprised, positive and giggly. A perfect fringe show.
Running time: One hour (no interval).
Monkey Barrel Comedy (Monkey Barrel 4), 9-12 Blair Street EH1 1QR (Venue 515).
Wednesday 5 – Sunday 30 August 2026.
Daily (not Wed 19): 9.15pm.
Tickets and details: Book here at EdFringe.com.
Tickets direct from venue: Book here.
Lou Wall Facebook: @TheLouWall
Instagram: @thelouwall
BlueSky: @XXXBS
TikTok: @thelouwall
ENDS
