By Grace Hatchell- currently pretending she’s in full control while standing in the wrong queue, holding three flyers and a half eaten-flapjack.
Chelsea Birkby brings In Full Control The Entire Time to Edinburgh Fringe, a playful comedy hour about free will, self-help, PowerPoint, destiny and whether any of us are really in charge.
There are certain show titles at the Edinburgh Fringe that make you nod politely.
Then there are ones that make you raise an eyebrow and think: aye, we’ll see about that.
Chelsea Birkby: Is In Full Control The Entire Time sounds very much like the latter.
Running at 21:45 from 5th to 30th August in Bunker Three at Pleasance Courtyard, Chelsea Birkby’s new hour brings together pop psychology, philosophy, self-help culture, audience data, and the single most terrifying phrase in modern life: Microsoft PowerPoint.
Now, I don’t like to judge a show before I’ve seen it, but any comedian who promises to help me dominate my destiny using slides has either cracked the human condition or has spent too long staring at bullet points in a windowless room. Possibly both.
Birkby arrives at the Fringe with a strong track record behind her. She has taken two critically acclaimed and double-award-nominated solo stand-up shows to Edinburgh, collecting a lovely little pile of 5, 4.5 and 4-star reviews along the way. She has also been recommended by Stewart Lee, which is one of those comedy sentences that instantly makes people sit up a bit straighter.
Known for combining smart and silly comedy, structured storytelling and conversational spontaneity, Birkby has become something of an indie Fringe favourite. She has also appeared on several Best Jokes of the Fringe lists, including The Times, The Telegraph and Dave’s Joke of the Fringe, where she landed at number seven in 2024.
That is not bad going. I’ve never made number seven in anything, unless we’re counting “people most likely to panic-buy a meal deal before a press night.”
The new show begins with a wonderfully strange premise. After a magician predicted her every move, Chelsea began to fear that her choices might not be entirely her own. So naturally, she took charge by self-helping herself. And now, like any good Fringe comic with a laptop and a suspicious amount of confidence, she is self-helping the audience too.
Armed with real audience data, the wisdom of Sun Tzu, Tony Robbins and Reddit threads, Birkby sets out to give the room strategies to dominate their destiny. Which does sound helpful, though I’d personally settle for clearing my inbox and finding me charger before my phone gives up on me
But beneath the comic chaos, there are bigger questions bubbling away. Is free choice an illusion? Is life a battle to be won or a mystery to be lived? Can self-help actually help us, or does it just give us nicer fonts for the same old panic? And at what point does “being in control” become its own full-time job?
That, I suspect, is where the show may find its sharpest edge. The title is funny because it is obviously protesting too much. Nobody who says they are in full control the entire time has ever met a group chat, a train delay, a printer, or their own nervous system.
Chelsea Birkby’s comedy seems to sit neatly in that space between intelligence and silliness, where an existential crisis can be dressed up as a presentation and still somehow land as a gag. Chortle, reviewing a work-in-progress at Leicester Comedy Festival, described the show as “bursting at the seams with brilliant little moments” with a “huge gag rate.”
Birkby has also been a finalist and runner-up in several major comedy competitions, including So You Think You’re Funny, Leicester Square New Comedian of the Year and the BBC New Comedy Award. She has been nominated for the Comedian’s Choice Award for both Best Show and Best Debut, recognised by the ISH Edinburgh Comedy Awards, and won the Amused Moose Best Debut Award.
So, is Chelsea Birkby in full control the entire time?
Almost certainly not.
But from the sound of it, watching her try might be the whole point.
Chelsea Birkby: Is In Full Control The Entire Time runs from 5th to 30th August at 21:45 in Bunker Three at Pleasance Courtyard. Expect philosophy, self-help, audience data, PowerPoint, and possibly the most controlled loss of control at this year’s Fringe.
Chelsea Birkby: Is In Full Control The Entire Time | Edinburgh Festival Fringe
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