Eight festival favourites to see at the 2015 Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Stand-up. Festival favourite.

Not many comics can mine their own personal traumas and neuroses and turn them into upbeat, optimistic stand-up, but Felicity Ward manages it. This year, the Australian comic delves deeper to examine her own depression, anxiety and IBS. Expect dark laughs and poo jokes.

9pm, Pleasance Courtyard.

Stand-up. Award nominee. Festival favourite.

James Acaster needs no more recommendations from us. He’ll sell out his sizable venue without a problem, and will undoubtedly receive a flurry of great reviews, but this list would feel incomplete without him. Acaster’s been nominated for the Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Award three times now. Could 2015 be the year he finally wins it? If you’ve never seen him before, a) you’re a fool, and b) buy a ticket right now.

8.30pm, Pleasance Courtyard.

Stand-up. Festival favourite.

Fans of John Robins and Elis James’s XFM radio show (and podcast) will be on the look out for references to Freddie Mercury, being ‘on email’ and session ales in the Robins’s new show. Our suggested itinerary for a truly John Robins evening (in his own list form): Ales! Ales! Robins! Laughs! More laughs! Ales! Rum and diet coke! Taxi! Bed! (Of course, those who haven’t listened to their radio show will enjoy ‘Speakeasy’, too – Robins is a mightily talented storyteller.)

8pm, Assembly George Square Studios.

Stand-up. Festival favourite. Free.

This disjointed, offbeat talent just keeps getting better and better – her scatterbrained stories and stupid ideas are ludicrously funny. This year’s show focuses on Sanders’s attempts to nab a place at Eton College for Boys, despite not being a boy.

5.30pm. Laughing Horse @ City Café.

Stand-up. Festival favourite.

Nish Kumar’s quickly becoming one of the most reliably funny stand-ups at the Fringe – we awarded his 2014 show the full five stars. He’s both embracing and mocking his own intelligence this year, tackling weighty political subjects with his deliciously sarcastic wit.

7.15pm, Pleasance Courtyard.

Stand-up. Off the telly. Festival favourite.

This contentious household-name stand-up needs no description here. Reggie D’s blissfully funny unfiltered opinions are a guaranteed safe bet this Fringe.

8pm, Pleasance Courtyard.

Stand-up. Festival favourite. Off the telly.

Another show that’s a book-right-this-second-if-you-don’t-want-to-be-disappointed deal. Slee’s been workshopping these new routines (that will eventually become the next series of his ‘Comedy Vehicle’) for months and months.

2.15pm, The Assembly Rooms.

Festival favourite.

This is the one. The big, only-in-Edinburgh experience. Fringe comedians (rounded up by sketch duo Max and Ivan) take on actual professional wrestlers in this explosive (literally), one-off, late-night spectacle which, in previous years, has ended with some comics in A&E. Their pain is your pleasure.

11pm, Pleasance Courtyard. (Aug 18 only.)