Li Jin Hao: Falling from a Moon review – comedy’s Mr Nostalgia is now the man of the moment

<p><strong>Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh<br></strong>In his award-nominated show, the standup ruminates on myth and memory with some lovely observations</p><p>‘There’s a moment when <em>that</em> ends,” muses Li Jin Hao, “and <em>this</em> begins …” As well as being jam-packed with swoonsome one-liners like that, Li’s show traces the tension between this and that; the draw the past exerts on this self-proclaimed Mr Nostalgia, versus the necessity of living in the present. Beginning with a yearning sun-and-moon myth learned at his granny’s knee, Li’s show – <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/aug/26/whimsical-shortlist-announced-for-edinburgh-comedy-award-2026">nominated for the Edinburgh comedy award</a> – toggles between a day in his current London life and memories of his upbringing in east Asia, and a long-gone romance he can’t quite shake off.</p><p>What makes the show distinctive, though, is the ruminative angle at which Li addresses his experiences, and the quality and consistency of its joke-writing – so many ravishing little insights revealing the world to us in shapes askew. It’s a leap forward from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/article/2024/aug/18/jin-hao-li-review-pleasance-courtyard-edinburgh">his 2024 debut</a>, which signalled the talent but was sheepish in its delivery. The only thing sheepish here is the twisty livestock gag that opens Li’s show, with a swagger that marks a performer now in his element onstage.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/aug/28/li-jin-hao-falling-from-a-moon-review-pleasance-courtyard-edinburgh">Continue reading...</a>