Canadian duo Creepy Boys win big at Edinburgh Fringe

Canadian alt-comedy/queer theatre duo Creepy Boys (Sam Kruger & S.E. Grummett) hit it big this month at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Their new show SLUGS, a comedy-music-clown-puppet nightmare, was nominated for Best Comedy Show at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, often called the “Oscars of Comedy”. Past nominees include fellow Canadian Mae Martin, musical comedians Bo Burnham and Flight of the Concords and Eddie / Susie Izzard. 

While the top prize ultimately went to UK-based stand-up Sam Nicoretti, the duo considers the nomination a huge win for Canadian performers as well as comedy acts whose work exists beyond traditional comedy genres. 

About the nomination, co-creator/performer, Sam Kruger said: “For us as a duo, that’s always felt too comedy for theatre, too theatre for comedy, too queer to be mainstream, but not queer in a cool way, the reaction to SLUGS has been incredibly validating.”

While in Edinburgh, SLUGS sold-out its entire run at the festival, and also picked up two other awards including a Bestie for “Genre Chaos” (presented by Radge Media) and a Bragi Award (presented by Summerhall Arts). 

S.E. Grummett and Sam Kruger proudly make joyful, deliciously funny, big-hearted, queer comedy and theatre for the intrigued. The pair were last at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023 with their late night word of mouth hit Creepy Boys, about teenage twins with a penchant for evil. 

SLUGS is a brand-new show for the duo, created in collaboration with Governor General Award-winning playwright Caleigh Crow, interactive comedy icon Deanna Fleysher (Butt Kapinski), Juno-nominated musical comedian Shirley Gnome, and Julie Taymor Fellow puppet-wizard Zach Dorn.