TV star’s harrowing show detailing abuse is a must-watch for all fat people

Alison Spittle’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival Show is a must-watch (Picture: Matthew Stronge) Alison Spittle – star of Pointless Celebrities, Richard Osman’s House of Games and Celebrity Googlebox – has an Edinburgh Fringe show that’s a must-see for all fat people.

The Irish comic, a much-loved Guilty Feminist regular and Wheel of Misfortune co-host with Kerry Katona, is laying herself bare on stage at this year’s arts festival.

BIG is a moving – yet hilarious – show about how being molested as a child triggered an eating disorder, which left Alison unable to go on rollercoasters, shuffling along train aisles, and eventually fighting for her life.

The 39-year-old’s show is charming, albeit with sleeve-clutching visceral descriptions of a pus bucket underneath her swollen leg on the day she almost died.

It’s also undeniably rib-tickling and punchy, and Alison’s one-liners are unmatched.

Some personal favourites include: Thorpe Park is the Zara of entertainment – fat people are welcome to watch, but not partake; unlike Alison, her boyfriend is middle class so he actually gets to live out his morals; and that age-old question… Am I nice, or just fat?

Her new show is a tight one-hour (Picture: Matthew Stronge) The hour is a big middle finger up to a TV show (with a teenage boy demographic) which didn’t cast her because – as an email not intended for her revealed – ‘no one wants to f**k Alison Spittle’.

Well, Alison Spittle f**ks. A lot.

She also didn’t go on Mounjaro and lose the weight of an XL Bully because of this. The email motivated her to get on TV, not to lose weight.

But one moment that did change everything was when Alison ended up in hospital, close to death with sepsis, sending friends deranged voicenotes to assure them she was okay (she wasn’t).

She was also struggling with sleep apnea and was diabetic due to her weight, gained through years of burying trauma.

The comedian didn’t hold back in her brutally honest show (Picture: Dave Benett/Getty Images for Universal) In a world where ‘body positivity’ is fat’s only buzzword, Alison’s show takes an important look at why she became fat in the first place. She ignites empathy and laughter – not sympathy and tilted head nods – from an audience hanging on her every anecdote.

Alison perhaps doesn’t realise how good she is. At points, she lost her train of thought (a comedian with ADHD, shock), and got flustered before returning to the train tracks, which honestly, I could stay on with her for hours.

She had the audience hanging on every word (Picture: Matthew Stronge) This show is not just about being fat, though. It’s about men preying on working-class estate children, molesting them while walking past their village kid peers.

It’s an expertly structured piece about trauma, healing, and how being fat in a world that hates fat people is ultimately, incredibly tiring.

Never mind the man who told Alison to sit down on a train – he can go to stranger hell. Alison is about to take up more space than she’s ever done before.

Alison Spittle: BIG is on at 4.45 in the Monkey Barrel 1 throughout August at the Edinburgh Fringe. Tickets here.

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