Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Dead Man Talking
DeadRoom Comedy
Genre: Comedy, Improvised Theatre, Interactive
Venue: Ruby at Gilded Balloon @Appleton Tower
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Dead Man Talking is a stand-up comedy show about the lighter side of death, interspliced with improvised eulogies from crowd submissions. U.S comedy from Elliot Weber and Joshua Emerson (DeadRoom Comedy). They want to make you laugh with jokes about death and grief. For sharing a laugh about a loved one you miss. Special guests and surprises every show.
Review
How would it be to carry on talking about our dead, joking about our dead, in a room with strangers? Joshua Emerson and Elliot Weber, old friends from school in Colorado, have created this late night light-interaction comedy show from the idea that we all die twice – once in the standard way and a second time when nobody talks about us any more. The vibe is having-fun-at-a-wake. As they point out, you never hear more laughter than at a funeral. Can this be harnessed for an hour of comedic release? Emerson and Weber invite the audience to scan a QR code and fill out a form for the deceased, your relationship to them, a description, their birth and death years (they joke that they’d never realised how bad the maths was until they started this show). Their own sets occupy the first half and the second is improvised around the submissions. It’s a neat premise in a comedy world where “the sad bit” has become well-worn and it can feel as though shows and performers must sell themselves through whichever personal trauma they’ve experienced. Dead Man Talking flips it all, giving us a low-key, chatty hour where death is up-top but never intended to make our bellies drop after a punchline, or as the serious message we will take home.
Catharsis is the word here. The comedians’ ‘dead mom’ and ‘dead dad’ (respectively) are part of how they introduce themselves and their show to us. There’s a matter-of-fact quality, that anyone bereaved will recognise, and sensitivity mixed in with playfulness. They are not afraid to tip towards bad taste if it will make them (and us) feel better. They are equally unafraid to make a joke-free observation when something quite simply sucks. On my night, we have a few dead grandparents and a colleague who died young. There’s immediate suspicion around whether someone’s Grandpa dodged the draft, a gentle telling off for one of the descriptions including the phrase ‘short king’ (‘he’s 6” in heaven, I’ll tell you that’), a grandmother uncovered to be most definitely hot. The pair are well equipped to manage tone, the audience is relaxed and smiley throughout, there’s an easy invitation to join in.
The show struggles a little more during the individual sets. Having warmed the crowd up to their subject, both sets then freewheel (sometimes the material is related to their parents, sometimes it isn’t) which sporadically drops the energy before the improvised eulogies bring it back up. There is a sense that the show is still finding its feet and the confidence to inhabit its own premise more fully. It feels odd to ask for “more death please” but leaning further into the theme during the individual sets would focus the evening and create a larger impact, allowing for more of the community atmosphere and relief they’re driving at. Emerson drops in that his mum went to college at the same time as him – tell me more about that please! Weber weaves the USA’s perpetually troubling gun laws into a family situation where all five of his dad’s brothers died – I want to hear about that family! Holding a careful line around personal trauma is important. There is, however, a lot of observational comedy – about either their own dead ones or societal attitudes and customs around death – that needs to be further explored.
They tell us on our way out that the show is different every time and they are writing new jokes every day. It’s a welcome place to land at the end of a fringe day, especially in a world where loss is very present. The concept is great and the audience up for it. I hope this show continues to develop through its run.
