Kate Copstick

How do you describe Kate Copstick? Many have tried in the past, and have used a wide variety of verbs to portray the, actress, aid worker and Scotsman’s leading comedy reviewer over the years.

However whether you are delightful or disparaging one thing is for sure, Copstick one of the heavyweight comedy critics of the past decade. It is arguable that Copstick has seen more comedy than any other UK comedy critic – the only other name which comes close is Mister Comedy himself, Steve Bennett.

Alongside putting comedians to the sword with her pen-strokes, Copstick has also been an Edinburgh Comedy Award judge in 2003 and 2004 and has been a Malcolm Hardee Award judge since 2008. According to her agent, Copstick was also the first critic to give Michael McIntyre a 5-star review.

In 2012 Copstick has taken her talents back to TV as a judge in ITV’s Show Me The Funny. The X Factor-style show received a mixed reaction, not only from Copstick herself who wasn’t sure the show worked as well as it could.

For us, Copstick has helped SSP judge a comedy cook-off and record a podcast entirely in French in a sweaty box-room at the Fringe.

When she isn’t carving cultural criticism into a sizeable chunk of the Edinburgh Fringe Copstick can be found helping to spread women’s rights and HIV awareness in Africa, giving out blow-job advice to wives as a means of helping reduce the pregnancy rate is one of the more unique ways in which Copstick works.