Friday August 1st 2025
Josie Long: Now is the Time for Monsters
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
Popular stand-up comedian, Josie Long, is back at the Fringe performing her show ‘Now is the Time for Monsters’. Bringing comedic story-telling to the small Queens Dome venue at Potterrow, the Taskmaster star comic roamed the stage with confidence, engaging with the crowd and taking the audience through a hilarious journey of her life, her love for pre-historic animals and much more.
Josie Long has had a successful comedy career, winning the BBC New Comedy Award when she was 17 and featuring in popular TV shows such as Taskmaster. The 43 year old English comic took all of her talent to this year’s Fringe, lighting up the small auditorium exploring many topics from her life as a mum to her time at Glastonbury with the overarching returning theme being her fascination for pre-historic life.
Despite the show’s unusual pre-historic and ‘monsters’ theme, her Fringe show was a talented and creative example of what a comedic Fringe show should be.
With the show’s name, ‘Now is the Time for Monsters’, being a reference to politician and freedom fighter Antonio Gramsci’s 1929 quote that read “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters”, this theme was used to explore Josie’s political beliefs, thoughts on the world now and current world issues, exploring serious issues but with a comedic twist.
Expressing to the laughing audience that she was diagnosed with ADHD, her random nature added to comedy, creating a strong performance despite frequently jumping around subject-matter. The show also explored sexual topics, with Josie talking about sexuality in an awkward but hilarious manner.
A unique element of the show was that the venue’s walls were covered in sheets with faint writing and drawings. The sheets glowed near the end of the show when Josie dimmed the lights, showing images she drew of jokes mentioned in the show, such as the jokes surrounding pre-historic animals, alongside ‘Free Palestine’ written expressing the political subject-matter explored.
Despite her star performance, some elements of her comedy didn’t stand up against the majority of the show. There were two moments during the show which involved Josie showing drawn photos to the crowd, similar to what was shown on the walls at the end of her performance. This joke was cringe-worthy and un-organised, having no comedic core and relying on laughter from the obsurdaty of the images being displayed.
Josie Long’s show, ‘Now is the Time for Monsters’, is a unique and well-put-together Fringe performance, being exactly what you’d expect from the festival. The show is running throughout the entirety of the festival at Queen Dome, Pleasance Dome and costs £18 full-price and £16.50 for concession tickets.
For creative comedy surrounding unique subjects delivered from an electric personality, Josie Long is a must-see comedian at this year’s Fringe.
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