It has been ten years since Alan Davies last performed at the Edinburgh Fringe. Now 59 and a father of three, he returns with ‘Think Ahead’, a sold-out run at the Orchard at Gilded Balloon at Appleton Tower, followed by a national tour this September.

Once known as a ‘people-pleasing comedian’, Davies now brings a sharper edge to the stage, slowly revealing how the past decade has shaped and changed him. The Orchard, normally a university lecture theatre, is split into three seating blocks, which Davies greets in his opening as ‘the far right’, ‘the far left’, and ‘the majority’. The audience spans generations, from those born in the 1950s to the 2000s, a fitting mirror for the themes of ageing, shifting identity, and changing attitudes.

Aging is a central topic. Davies recalls seeing Back to the Future: The Musical with his son, born during his decade-long stand-up hiatus. He suddenly realised that he’s now older than Doc Brown, who was played by a then-47-year-old Christopher Lloyd in the original film. His dream of being Marty McFly crushed.

At first, some material may seem like standard fare, jokes about erectile dysfunction or the dreaded ‘blue pills’. But as Davies goes further, weaving in personal anecdotes about health scares, cancer screenings using shit, and shifting mental states, the performance takes on a raw, disarming honesty. As different age groups in the audience react in noticeably different ways, it’s not that standard after all. Still, Davies embraces that discomfort, turning it into laughter.

The most confronting part of the show involves his late father, the subject of Davies’ 2020 memoir Just Ignore Him. He revisits painful memories, including his father’s collection of pornographic photos of young boys, and his own experience of childhood sexual abuse. With candour and control, Davies shares the trauma, the PTSD it caused, and the weirdly funny detail of his father’s golf-obsessed diary. These moments are dark, but not humourless. Somehow, Davies balances grief, trauma, and comedy with surprising precision.

Ten years is a long time, and ‘Think Ahead’ shows just how much has changed: not just for Davies, but It has been ten years, and during that time a lot has happened not only to Davies but also to how our perspectives have changed about how we see the world, or even what should be seen and talked about collectively. And in that sense, as he suggests, Think Ahead.

‘Think Ahead‘ is at Gilded Balloon – Appleton Tower – Orchard until Sun 10 Aug 2025 at 19:15