What a way to kick off Fringe! I doubt there’ll be another show as joyously witty as this throughout the 31 days. The concept of What Doesn’t Kill You … is a trawl of the internet to discover true stories of survival (against all odds) and then to present the most peculiar tales as cabaret. It works beautifully.

The writing (by Robert Woods and Tyler Jacob Jones) is irreverent and clever and some wonderful songs emerge from unlikely raw material – whoever would have thought that a song sequence about desperately holding in your number twos for fear of exploding toilets could be so entertaining?

It is a tour de force for the performers Tyler Jacob Jones and Erin Hutchinson. Both have excellent singing voices and great stage presence allied with acting chops and physical comedy skills. And they are superbly backed by the talented Joe Louis Robinson on keyboards.

A variety of musical styles are presented including rock opera, calypso and operetta – all delivered with aplomb. The show is wonderfully paced with the audience still laughing from one peculiar real-life tale when the next bizarre vignette is introduced.

A couple of highlights for me were Erin imitating a cat, snuggling up to Tyler by comically emulating the rubbing and licking familiar to all cat lovers, and Tyler (literally) wearing many hats as he deftly navigated a three-person vocal piece with the music speeding up to near manic levels as the song progressed. The interplay between Erin and Tyler was delightful and they clearly enjoy performing together - at one point they were both trying desperately to keep a straight face before succumbing to a burst of giggles.

Wickedly funny, killer songs, laughter abounds – Fringe at its best! It’s such a treat that this humdinger of a show by Holland St Productions is back at FRINGE WORLD in 2025.