Stand-up show by Tamsyn Kelly about class, questionable choices and money, nominated for the 2026 Uprise Award.
Tamsyn Kelly brings Rat's Ass to Monkey Barrel Comedy on Saturday 30 January. It's a stand-up show that takes class, questionable choices and money and weaves them into a single thread, charting Kelly's journey from owning a second-hand childhood rat to making the biggest earnings of her career.
If that sounds like a strange starting point, it's exactly where the show begins. The second-hand rat is the first link in a chain that leads through the awkwardness of class and the decisions we make when money is on the line, and Kelly follows that line right through to the other end. It's the kind of material that works because it's rooted in her own life, and the rat is just the first of many things she looks back on.
Kelly is well-known beyond the Edinburgh circuit, too. She's appeared on HBO, ITV2's The Stand Up Sketch Show, Comedy Central, BBC One, BBC Three and BBC Radio 4. Rat's Ass has already picked up its share of attention: it was nominated for the 2026 Uprise Award and won the Edinburgh Comedy Awards Panel Prize as part of Best in Class. Rolling Stone named it one of its must-see comedy shows of 2025, and the Herald described it as 'full of more soul than you could ever dream of'.
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The show is at Monkey Barrel Comedy, 9-12 Blair Street in the Old Town, with doors opening at 7.30pm and the show starting at 8pm. Tickets are £16.50.
