RSA Edinburgh preview: Kemah Bob & Jordan Brookes
Kemah Bob and Jordan Brookes preview their Edinburgh Fringe shows at RSA House — two distinctive comedic voices in one evening before the festival run.
Why we picked this
Kemah Bob and Jordan Brookes represent two very different approaches to comedy — seeing them back-to-back in a small room the month before Edinburgh sharpens what makes each distinctive.
The RSA Edinburgh Preview Season continues on June 18 with Kemah Bob and Jordan Brookes, two performers whose work operates in genuinely different registers. Kemah Bob has built a following for comedy that is sharp, politically alive, and emotionally direct; Jordan Brookes brings a more formally inventive sensibility, the kind of act that tends to generate strong opinions at the Fringe. Sharing an evening, they offer something more than a double bill.
Preview nights at RSA House are a fixture of the London comedy calendar for a reason. The setting — a Georgian townhouse off the Strand, a few hundred seats, no festival infrastructure around it — strips back the show to what it actually is, before press runs and festival word of mouth layer on expectations. Both performers will take the stage for an hour-length slot, developing work that is heading to Edinburgh the following month.
The format is part of the appeal: early runs of new material in an intimate room tend to reveal creative risks that get smoothed out by the time a show reaches a full festival run. June 18 is one of the better chances this season to see two of the more interesting voices in British comedy in a room where the work is still finding its shape.