A review of Chris Grace: 88%, Fringe 2026

In his hour-long offering at this year’s Fringe, Chris Grace asks the question can we get along with people who we don’t or only mostly agree with.

Without making too oblique of a reference to the goings on in the world just now, largely because they are constantly in flux, the importance of this question feels weighty and thus naturally predisposed to have comedy be the ideal lens through which we may explore and reckon with it.

And what more fitting venue for this than a pipe and draped lecture hall with the accompanying seating and desk space? Be warned, the seats are quite narrow and you will be very close against your fellow audience members.

The show, soup to nuts

Through many thoroughly entertaining stories, indisputable charm and stage presence, and a couple of better than expected impressions, Grace brings his audience with him to some deeply personal and consideration-worthy experiences that highlight deeper themes:

How do we interact with people when we and they all have visible and invisible identities in harmony and conflict? How can we feel the desire for something to be over the second it begins after a great deal of anticipation toward it? What credentials do we need to have and/or be ready to present in order to say whatever we like and is that even the way to be going about things?

How does one navigate taking care of themself and their family while also being responsible to larger communities and thus being exposed to the burnout that can come with that?

The answers, Grace believes, are in regaling us of times spent in Amsterdam, at gay saunas with a robust soup selection, and in the comments sections of arguments on Facebook with armfuls of research at the ready. After hearing his case for all of them, I absolutely cannot disagree.

Overall

While I enjoyed the show as a whole, there were a few moments I found that I did not connect with every bit of the material. This can of course be chalked up to personal taste, priorities, experiences, and more, which I again think reinforces the point of the show and is a credit to its efficacy.

So much of the minutiae and major events of our lives alike can be viewed alongside these questions, and it remains up to us to glean what meaning and answers we can while trying to show up for ourselves and our communities. I suspect time, experience, and circumstance are all factors that go into our being able to determine how much we feel the need to share similar opinions with someone in order to feel good about getting along with them.

Is the answer 88%? You can decide for yourself at Chris Grace: 88% at Assembly @ George Square (Studio 5 at most performances).