Edinburgh Fringe 2025
5 Mistakes That Changed History
Paul Coulter
Genre: Comedy, Historical, One Person Show, Storytelling
Venue: Assembly
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Back for the third year running, 5 Mistakes That Changed History is back with another hour of silly little mistakes that accidently changed the course of history. Whoops.
Review
Paul Coulter’s fantastic show, 5 Mistakes That Changed History, is back on the Fringe circuit for the third year running, and there must be something in the water. Following sell-out runs in 2023 and 2024, it looks like his current run is heading the same way, with a couple of performances already marked with that wonderful or dreadful SOLD OUT sticker, depending on whether you’ve left it too late to snag yourself a ticket.
With a set design that reminded me of an eccentric uncle’s study, Coulter had all the air and gravitas of an enthusiastic television presenter, which, who knows? It might be something in the cards for his future. He delivered a polished hour of stories to a packed-out lecture theatre – one that I have previously had the (mis)fortune to frequent, and let me tell you, I’ve never seen it that full. And so many eyes, all so eager and attentive.
Coulter is clearly passionate about his subject (that much is clear from the childhood civil war reenactment photos) and commands the room as the confident storyteller he is. This, apparently, is something that the Penguin editorial team has sniffed out as well, as his first book, 10 Mistakes That Changed History, based on last year’s successful run, has just been published in June of this year.
Certainly a show for the whole family (with a few cheeky tongue-in-cheek references snuck in for good measure), his set is certainly a crowd pleaser, with a range of mistakes to delight even the most ardent history fan. From castles, cannons and crocodiles, with a few cavaliers thrown in for good measure, he covers a wide breadth of different mistakes, some of them rather silly, and others a little bit more serious. One thing I would note here is that with such wide-ranging appeal, it makes it difficult to tailor the set for a specific audience, but perhaps that’s a good idea for a spin-off.
My only gripe is that there weren’t more stories, and maybe a few that I wasn’t as familiar with, but I suppose he has to leave some material for his next show. And I’ll be right there in the front row, listening. Run, don’t walk, to grab yourselves a ticket.
