EDINBURGH 2026: Review: BELLA HULL: MAD COW DISEASE, Monkey Barrel
Bella Hull brings us another wickedly acidic hour of stand-up comedy
Fresh off the back of a full season in the writers' room of Saturday Night Live UK, Bella Hull returns to the Edinburgh Fringe with her latest hour of stand-up comedy.
Aptly named, Hull delivers a show which is erratic, unpredictable, and, suitably, mad. This becomes incredibly obvious within the opening minutes of the show, in which, after some up-close and personal crowd work, the comedian reveals to the audience that everything she has told them up to this point is a total lie.
It’s an audacious opening. One that gets a huge laugh and perfectly introduces the audience to the comic’s style of humour. For some, it would be a tough sell, but the SNL UK writer pulls it off so effortlessly that one can’t help but be won over by it.
The rest of the hour is just as bonkers, with Hull jumping from topic to topic. From her relationship with her mum and grandma, to her promiscuous roommate, to her dreams of raising an incel son, each word that comes out of Bella’s mouth seems to be just as ridiculous as the last.
Perhaps Bella’s greatest quality as a stand-up is her ability to pull the rug out from under the crowd’s feet. Constantly setting up jokes and taking them in a completely unexpected way, Hull proves herself as an excellent writer with a killer delivery.
That said, this latest hour is not without its faults. Specifically, one section involving a puppet feels like it does more to harm the show than anything. Although Hull herself jokes that she only brings the puppet on stage to make it tax-deductible, the involvement of such a gag does nothing but halt the proceedings.
Despite the disruption, Mad Cow Disease is yet another wickedly acidic hour of stand-up comedy from Bella Hull that is as sure to shock and surprise you as it is sure to make you laugh.
Bella Hull: Mad Cow Disease runs at Monkey Barrel Comedy until 30 August.
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