The Gilded Balloon Wows With 40th Anniversary Line-Up

For the 1986 Edinburgh Fringe, the Gilded Balloon was founded. Starting as a studio space in the 369 Gallery, Cowgate, it ran 7 shows a day – creating a home for comedians in a theatre-heavy Fringe. From this start, its founder and artistic director, the pioneering Karen Koren has not only transformed the Gilded Balloon, but has irrevocably altered the world’s biggest arts festival – for the better!

Always an innovator when other venues stuck to their same programming patterns, Koren created Late’n’Live – a freewheeling late night showcase where anything could happen at a time when no-one else was doing shows that went past midnight. It was a hub where comics would drink, rubs shoulders with the punters and also learned their trade. What was so remarkable, especially in these more staid, corporate years of the Fringe, was its sheer unpredictability. Late’n’Live would announce that evening’s line-up on the day creating a buzz each and every performance. It was joyously rough-round-the-edges. Sometimes it flew stratospherically, other nights it died on its proverbial. But that was the thrill and the boldness of the Gilded Balloon’s innovation.

In 1988, Koren developed yet another transformative Fringe institution: So You Think You’re Funny? Forward thinking, the Gilded Balloon’s artistic director created the foremost comedy-talent competition in the country and in doing so, provided the launch pad for a bewildering roll call of household names: Peter Kay (The Recs’ editor was there the night he won), Lee Mack, Sarah Millican, Jimmy Carr, Aisling Bea and the list goes on.

The Gilded Balloon has been pivotal in bringing international talent to the UK – nowhere more than from Australia. Who spotted Tim Minchin at the 2005 Melbourne comedy festival and brought him to Edinburgh the following year – and backed his show – which won his show the Perrier Award? Gilded Balloon.

So how do Karen and her daughter Katy Koren mark the Gilded Balloon’s 40th anniversary year? Today, the Gilded Balloon has revealed a programme which induced gasps in The Recs’ office. After a somewhat muted 2024, the creative force that is the Gilded Balloon is back with a bang, announcing a quite extraordinary line-up.

Rosie O’Donnell

Embarking on her first ever Edinburgh Fringe show, the phenomenal Rosie O’Donnell – the eleven – yes count them – eleven times Tony award winner brings her brand new hour Here & Now to the Fringe 2025. With over 45 years since her stand-up debut, what a time to make her Fringe debut!

Speaking of her anticipation of debuting at EdFringe 2025, O’Donnell said “I’m beyond excited for my first Fringe Festival! I’m thankful to be a part of this historic gathering of artists of all shapes and sizes – I’m so happy to be included and hope you can stop by and say hello!”

Smack The Pony

One thing that we did not have on our EdFringe ’25 bingo cards was a Smack The Pony reunion! What a tribute to the fact that Gilded Balloon has been the torchbearers for so much female comedy – who trumpeted that women comics could be sexy, self-deprecating and funny – that three leading lights of the groundbreaking Channel Four sketch show should be part of GB’s anniversary year.

Doon Mackichan, Sally Phillips and Fiona Allen commented “Because we always talk sketch ideas when we get together, on some level it’s almost as if Smack the Pony never really stopped – that it just kept going in some parallel universe. So it feels like Gilded Balloon is some kind of portal and we’ll be popping into catch up with Series 26″

Arthur Hull

Of course it’s not all household names…yet! Given the Gilded Balloon’s track record of launching new talent onto an international stage, The Recs is keeping its eye on Australian-based Arthur Hull‘s debut show.

FLOP: The Best Songs From The Worst Musicals Ever Written is the sort of simple but irresistible concept for a show that could really take flight at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Speaking to The Recs, in an upcoming podcast, Hull said “Tim Minchin is one of my biggest influences of how I conduct myself onstage. He’s a massive hero of mine. And the fact that I’m coming to the Gilded Balloon this year, twenty years after his meteoric rise, I feel is very poetic”.

Alan Davies

After a decade away from the Edinburgh Fringe, actor and comedian Alan Davies returns with a stand-up show, Think Ahead. Exploring the ups and downs of middle age, Davies thinks he’s Marty McFly but he’s older than Doc Brown according to the blurb for his show.

On playing at the Gilded Balloon, the Jonathan Creek actor said “I never come to the festival without seeing something or doing something at Gilded Balloon – it’s an incredible achievement to run so many venues for so many decades while still championing the quirky, risky, bonkers Fringe shows we all love.”

Celebrating their 40th anniversary across Patter House (3 Chambers Street), the National Museum of Scotland (Lothian Street) and Appleton Tower (11 Crichton Street), Gilded Balloon is presenting a powerhouse line-up for Edinburgh Fringe 2025 that should not be missed!

Happy 40th to the pinkest venues at the Fringe!