A BLOG OF SORTS FROM CHRIS COOKE
August 2026
Conferences
As August ends, I guess it’s time to switch back from comedy-and-Edinburgh-Fringe mode to copyright-and-music-business mode. Not least because I’ll be popping up at three music conferences in September – first Aberdeen Music Week, then GearCon in London, and then Output in Belfast. Maybe see some of you there!
Hoxa HQ
I popped over to the Hoxa HQ recording studio in West Hampstead yesterday, but not – as you might have assumed – to start work on my first album. We were recording a podcast all about the MPG Producer Deals Guide we published earlier this year. The podcast will be available sometime soon – though you can access the guide right now.
All my reviews
As we head towards the final weekend of the Edinburgh Festival, here are all my ThreeWeeks comedy reviews from this year’s Fringe – I managed to get to 20 shows this time round.
5/5 reviews
This web page has all the 5/5 reviews we’ve published so far during this year’s Edinburgh Festival, a whole bunch of shows that are highly recommended by the ThreeWeeks review team. As for my own reviews, I’ve just written my fourth and final 5/5 review of the Fringe, which will be appearing on that page very soon.
Abderdeen Music Week
Having been back in London for almost a week now, I think it’s time to start planning another trip to Scotland. And look, here it is! Really looking forward to moderating some sessions at Aberdeen Music Week next month – you can find out more information about all the events taking place here.
TW:Talks is back
I sat down with eight great performers at the Edinburgh Festival last week for some quality podcast chatting. The first two editions of TW:Talks for 2026 – with Max Fulham and Jess Fucks – are online now, with two more editions following tomorrow. Check them all out here.
5/5 reviews
So, did I see any 5/5 shows while at the Edinburgh Festival this month? Well, thanks for asking – and yes, yes I did. Here is one of them. You can read my full Jess Fuchs review – and all the other ThreeWeeks reviews so far this year with a 5/5 rating – here.
More Quick Quiz
Loads of Edinburgh Fringe performers have been tackling our all important Edinburgh Festival Quick Quiz this year. We’ll be publishing more videos on the ThreeWeeks socials next week – but you can check all the Quick Quiz answers we’ve published so far right now on the ThreeWeeks website.
Departing Edinburgh
It’s a predictable thing to say but… I can’t believe my ten days at the Edinburgh Fringe are over already and yet it feels like I’ve been here for months! 20 shows reviewed; 8 podcast interviews recorded; steak dinners with Christabel, Geraint and Alex; and only a modest amount of self-indulgent “30 years of ThreeWeeks” nostalgia. Maybe. I mean the last two shows I reviewed were in the old Teviot Committee Room, so there had to be some nostalgia.
AI labelling
When discussing all the debates around the labelling of AI-generated content the other day, one person suggested that maybe it would be better to start labelling the human-created content instead, given how much AI content there will be, and the fact human creators are more likely to be keen to self label. Which is an interesting proposal. To that end, I can confirm this article was human-created. By this human. Here it is.
Edinburgh reviews
Quick Edinburgh Fringe update – favourite shows so far (I think) are Sammy J ‘Hero Complex’ and Jess Fuchs ‘Feral’. Though, I should add, I’m not only seeing Australian comedians. My reviews and those of the wider ThreeWeeks team are now starting to appear here.
Reviewing myself
Very much enjoyed Max Fulham’s show yesterday – though given I ended up being dragged into some good old audience participation, do I also need to review my own performance? My assistant puppeteering was pretty ropey (tw rating 2/5), but I think I did quite a good job on the flashback-signalling bar chimes (tw rating 4/5). Max’s rating is still being calculated – but the review will appear here in the next couple of days.
Majors sue rouge app?
If anyone ever put together a list of the Top Five Chris Cooke Typos – common errors which, of course, I (almost) always spot during the proofing stage – up near the top would be the fact I always type ‘rouge’ when I mean ‘rogue’. I spotted it on this story before publication, but I guess Musi’s logo is orangy-red, so maybe “rouge music app” would have also worked. For French readers anyway. Here’s that story.
With an InterCap W
I’ve already picked a winner for this year’s ‘Thats Right, It’s ThreeWeeks, One Word With An InterCap W’ Award, presented in honour of those who employ a high attention to detail when typesetting the stars on an Edinburgh Fringe poster. As I may have mentioned, this is the 30th anniversary of ThreeWeeks, and I would like to stress that brand names with an InterCap letter were very cool in 1996.
Teviot nostalgia
I had a little wander around the all-new Teviot yesterday with its swish new basement bar (main thing to report: they’ve swapped the toilets round). Then this morning I met the new EUSA President and former Fresh Air Head Of Music, prompting a nostalgic meander (on my part) through Teviot Friday nights, the old Fringe Club and its Bear Pit Cabaret, and the 1997 Student Radio Conference. So yeah, I think I’ve used up my Edinburgh nostalgia quota for this Fringe.
ThreeWeeks Quick Quiz
If you’re interested in our coverage of the Edinburgh Festival but don’t like reading, well, we’ve brought back the ThreeWeeks Quick Quiz and this time performers are recording their answers, so you can watch them back, no reading required! Well, you might have to read the questions. The latest Quick Quiz responses are here.
I’m in Edinburgh
I’m in Edinburgh! Technically I’m here for the Fringe, but ThreeWeeks covers the wider Festival, so it’s not odd that I’ve posted a photo of the Usher Hall and EIF. It’s also pretty much the first Festival thing I came across after being chucked off the tram at the West End stop because of the reduced service. Now I’m here, I should probably work out what I’m doing for the next ten days!
GEMA v Suno
Big development yesterday in the ongoing legal battling over the copyright obligations of generative AI companies, as German collecting society GEMA scored a significant win over music AI platform Suno. I’m off to Edinburgh on Tuesday and plan to spend the next few weeks more focused on comedy than copyright, so if we could have no more major developments in this domain until September, that would be really helpful. Meanwhile, here’s my CMU report on the GEMA v Suno ruling.