Date: 9th June 2026
Venue: Comedy Cellar @ The Canons’ Gait Pub
Address: 232 Canongate, Edinburgh
Rating: ★★★★★
If you’re looking for a night of comedy that feels more like being in the pub with a group of outrageously funny friends than sitting through a formal stand-up show, The Good, The Bad & The Irish absolutely delivers.
Taking place at The Comedy Cellar beneath Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, the evening showcased exactly why the venue has earned its reputation as the city’s only 5-star underground comedy club. It’s a bold statement to make in a city packed with comedy venues, but after watching four fantastic acts and some of the quickest crowd work I’ve seen in a long time, it’s one that’s hard to argue with.
Hosting live stand-up seven nights a week, The Comedy Cellar has become a home for raw, unfiltered comedy, and from the moment Michael Porter stepped onto the stage, it was easy to see why audiences leave wanting more.
Porter opened the night and immediately had the audience in stitches. Before he’d even properly started his set, he was working the room, picking out audience members and turning simple conversations into huge laughs. We somehow established there were three Scottish people and two English people nearby, which was all the information he needed to get going. What impressed me most wasn’t just that the crowd work was funny, but how quick he was. Nothing felt rehearsed and nobody felt uncomfortable. The people being picked on were laughing just as much as everyone else.
That ability to think on the spot became a theme throughout the night, especially whenever Porter returned to the stage. Some comedians avoid laughing at their own jokes, but Porter clearly enjoys being up there and that energy spreads through the room. It’s difficult not to get caught up in it, and every return to the stage brought fresh laughs and new riffs from the audience interactions. What made his crowd work particularly impressive was how he continued to reference earlier conversations throughout the night, turning throwaway comments into running jokes that got even bigger laughs later on.
Ryan Wingfield followed with a completely different style. Originally from Alaska, after briefly confusing everyone by introducing himself as Canadian, he delivered a relaxed and conversational set that felt more like listening to a very funny friend tell stories than watching a performance. From cruise ship life and being a self-proclaimed trophy husband to organ donation and increasingly ridiculous observations, his pace never felt rushed and every story had a payoff worth waiting for.
After the interval, Liam Jackson kept the momentum going with some incredibly clever callbacks. One of my favourite things about stand-up is when comedians can take something that happened earlier in the night and bring it back later, making it even funnier the second time around. Jackson did this repeatedly, weaving previous audience interactions and earlier jokes into his own material while somehow making it look effortless. The quick thinking required to connect those moments on the spot was genuinely impressive.
Closing the night was Kurt Sterling, whose laid-back delivery worked perfectly. Whether he was talking about teaching, driving or relationships, he had a way of making everyday situations sound completely absurd. Some comedians feel like they’re trying very hard to be funny. Sterling didn’t need to. The humour came naturally and the audience loved him for it.
One thing I noticed was that the room actually seemed busier after the break, despite a handful of people not returning for the second half. To be honest, with only a few people leaving, I don’t think that says much at all. During the interval I ended up chatting to several audience members outside and asking who their favourite acts had been so far, and every answer was different. Some preferred the crowd work, others enjoyed the storytelling, but everyone I spoke to was having a great time. The Comedy Cellar prides itself on being raw and unfiltered, and while that style of comedy won’t be for everyone, there was nothing that felt deliberately offensive or shocking for the sake of it. The vast majority of the room were fully invested, and the laughs certainly didn’t slow down as the night went on.
The Good, The Bad & The Irish was one of those line-ups where every act brought something different to the table. Great crowd work, strong storytelling, quick thinking and a room full of laughs from start to finish meant there was never a dull moment.
What surprised me most was discovering afterwards that this wasn’t even considered one of The Comedy Cellar’s strongest nights. If that’s the case, then I’m genuinely excited to see what else they have to offer. If this is the standard of comedy being produced seven nights a week beneath Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, then that 5-star reputation suddenly makes a lot of sense.
