★★★★★ Review: Daisy Doris May – Big Night Out @ Assembly Studios
Edinburgh Fringe 2025 - Character Comedy
This is character comedy at its best – a brilliantly structured night of organised chaos, full of sharp improv and generous audience interaction. Daisy Doris May has crafted a show that’s as playful as it is polished, and the result is a late-night riot that leaves the whole room buzzing.
As promised on the poster, three characters take the stage, each woven together into a seamless night of comedy mayhem
First up is Hans Off, a German fashion designer in a neon-green bondage outfit Lady Gaga might covet – bare bum cheeks, white moustache, peaked cap. The audience are drafted in as fellow designers, choosing models from the crowd and dressing them up with tape and plastic for a makeshift catwalk. Their mission? To strut their way into a nightclub past an audience-member “bouncer.” It’s unpredictable, hilarious, and gloriously messy.
Next comes The Divine Karen Moonstone, a character I instantly recognised from countless trips to Glastonbury (the town, not the festival). With her chakras, crystals, and audience “readings,” Karen is every spiritual seeker you’ve ever met, exaggerated to comic perfection. Daisy has this character nailed, and the audience lap it up.
The final arrival is Steve Porters – “lock up your daughters” – a fragile, laddish character who’s arrogant yet strangely vulnerable. Not Andrew Tate-toxic, but definitely a “for the bros” type. His run-in with a stag party in the audience sparks a cascade of sketches that keep the laughs rolling without pause.
Throughout, video interludes (we see other characters too) on a big screen bridge the costume changes with broadcast-quality clips that are as entertaining as the live action. What's so special and why top marks? The energy never dips – Daisy cleverly spreads the interaction across the room, turning the crowd into co-stars, until the whole place feels like one giant party.
By the end, the atmosphere is euphoric – a proper “big night out” that more than lives up to its name.
This is organised chaos at its finest: sharp, inventive, and riotously funny. Daisy Doris May makes it look easy, and I’d love to see these characters make the leap to TV. With the right platform, Big Night Out could easily follow in the tradition of Catherine Tate, Little Britain, or Bo’ Selecta.
This show is going on a national tour unsurprisingly. So folks all around the Country can enjoy a big night out.
