The Skills to Pay the Bills

Think you’ve committed to the festival? Score yourself against these comics with serious skin in the game

For his 2018 show, the absurdly named Honk Honk Honk Honk Honk, Tom Walker learned how to code. On a computer. If past form is anything to go by, Walker is unlikely to be designing productivity apps any time soon. But you never know.

Ever met a practitioner of the Japanese paper folding art, origami? If not, Smith’s your man. Indeed, if you like literally an- ything, he’s your man – he’s listed under every genre of the Fringe programme. Underbelly, Bristo Square, 5:15pm –

, prices vary vary

Bet you’ve never built a lovebot. Do you even know what one is? In 2016, Bilal Zafar made cakes; in 2017, biscuits. This year Zafir has upped the stakes, and the tech, and the love.

A former member of sketch group Gein’s Family Giftshop, Meehan’s hair game has always been okay. Good enough to warrant him spending £3,000 to become a barber? Perhaps not, but hard to argue with when you consider that Meehan will be offering snips to comedians in August for £10 to raise money for male suicide prevention charity CALM.

The Bostonian’s 2014 show Millennial won the best newcomer award and made him famous – and a target for anti-semitic attacks online. Which makes his decision to go undercover and attend a meeting of antisemites in New York quite astonishing.

How’s this for straight-up real-life skills: not content with playing a role in the Repeal the Eighth campaign for women’s reproductive rights in Ireland, the Irish comedian is on a mission for real change. Her new podcast, Changing Politics, kicked off by instigating grassroots action to reduce deaths in police custody. Props. Pleasance Dome, 6:50pm – 7:50pm, 1–27