Power

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Power 〰️

The Edinburgh Fringe is back for 2026, and with it, our annual feature series! This year, we’re taking on POWER: Who’s got it? Where is it? Where should it be? How do you get it? Our comedians are the only ones with the answers.

By Reuben Kaye

We are obsessed with power! Not just achieving it but exerting it over others. Look at the world now. Led by sociopaths. Men at the peak of their mediocrity, but power hungry. And two of the great, aged fulcrums we hinge that power on are Patriotism and God. Why? Because both still hold power.

Your country and your god is you! Like the mad soccer fan who sees his daily struggles, his life and loves reflected in his team’s triumphs and failures, and yet doesn’t realise that the team is owned by international billionaires, the players are millionaires themselves and the very merch he proudly wears was made in Vietnam by a child no older than his own offspring. THAT is the power of belonging. God and nationalism are The Great Belonging. And they’re having a huge comeback. Nationalism is the new black…or white as the case may be.

Here’s what I love about Nationalism. Which is a dubious but undeniably strong opener…

I love how it gets sold to us. Because it has to be instilled. The mad froth of Jingoism isn’t a naturally occurring phenomenon. It gets sold to us through National Values. Those ideals that the government tells us are our identity to band us together. And let me tell you this: whenever anyone in authority tells you who you are, they are trying to sell you something.

Do you know what Australia’s national values are? Of course, we know what they should be: spousal abuse and land theft. But it’s very tricky to fit that on a commemorative coin. It’s actually Mateship and Having A Fair Go. What does that mean? That’s not a national identity. That’s not the backbone of a nation. That’s the code of conduct at a gay sauna.

Know what America’s national values are? Life, Liberty and the Pursuit Of Happiness for all. Except of course for anyone not white, or a woman or not straight. If we’re honest, America’s National Values should be Lie Down, Take It, and Fuck Off. Also the code of conduct at a gay sauna.

They’re all just bunkum statements that make you feel like an individual but actually mean nothing and apply to everyone. So one could say that nationalism is just the zodiac for shy racists, desperate for rationalisation. That’s ok Greg, you’re not a white supremacist, you’re just an American moon with a German Rising.

And the second fulcrum is of course religion. Now I’m not a person of faith. You, dear reader, can believe anything you want. I will never say you can’t. But I will say, in the spirit of honesty and truth, that I think religion is responsible for some of the most beautiful art that man has ever made. The architecture, the music, the prose, sculpture, tapestry and paintings. The robes of the Pope! I mean RuPaul could only dream! Across all religions, the ecstasy of the divine has spurred humanity to create so much beauty. But the rest of it is just dogshit. I think I’m pretty safe in saying most religions are just nationalism with some lovely calligraphy.

We all want to belong to something greater than us. That’s what religion promises and I get that.

But it’s just too inconsistent… All of them! Not just Christianity here. Judaism, Islam, the whole gamut. It claims to be moral yet condones murder. It says “love thy neighbour” but allows us to own slaves. It says we are all equal in God's eyes, except of course women and black people. It says only God is infallible, that God makes no mistakes. If God makes no mistakes, then why am I circumcised? What was the idea there? Like my foreskin was the plastic tape on a printer cartridge you have to peel off before use?

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I will say there is one argument that could swing me. Of all the crap in the Bible that people point out, there's one bit that rings true to me. Out of all the slave owning, the marrying your brother’s wife when he dies, the contradictions on what to eat, what to wear, etc… all the fucking analogies about farming (try and create a metaphor without reference to wheat or oxen, I dare you), the one thing that makes sense to me, as I get older: I do believe the human body was made in a day. This feels like a rushed job, doesn’t it?

Oh I’m the pinnacle of intelligent design? I’m made in God’s image? Does God also look like Margaret Thatcher if she took the substance? Does God also have loose teeth just rattling around their skull like a gambler's dice on a paddleboat steamer on the Mississippi?

God went to the trouble of making the toucan, coral reefs, volcanoes and lyrebirds, and then us? This collection of spare parts? A body with so little structural integrity that we’re all just one hard sneeze away from shitting ourselves at a family barbecue? A spine that can just snap at any moment? Hair that just goes WHEREVER IT WANTS? Why is one ball hairier than the other, God? Why does one look like a ginger Diana Ross and the other looks like the world’s oldest Make A Wish kid? Asking for a friend.

Tonsil stones, gallstones, kidney stones…at what point does our body become a fucking quarry?

Cancer feels like a glitch they haven’t updated yet – that’s cells that have just overcommitted to the task like the brooms in Fantasia. I can’t commit to a two week situationship, but my cells can commit to four whole stages? If I get cancer, my four stages are gonna be Mainstage, Broadway, the Tonys, and regional tour. What stage is your cancer? West End, but with a lot of Todaytix.

I get it though. The world is big and scary and dark. It makes children of us all, and religion is a lovely teddy bear to hold in the dark when you’re frightened, but as I found out one night in Berlin. Even a bear has its limits.

Reuben Kaye: Hard To Swallow is running at Assembly George Square Gardens (Palais du Variété) from Aug 6-29th (except Mondays) at 20:00. Tickets here.

The Kaye Hole is running at Underbelly Bristo Square (McEwan Hall) Aug 21-22nd and 28-29th, at 23:00. Tickets here