Нью-йоркский клоун Ной Селтцер представит в Эдинбурге сольную шоу о борьбе с глобальной одиночеством

New York performer Noah Seltzer makes their Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut with a heartfelt solo show imagining a clown’s impossible mission to cure loneliness New York-based performer and theatre-maker Noah Seltzer will make their Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut this summer with Here Comes Almost, an inventive solo clown show inspired by one of the world’s fastest-growing public health concerns: loneliness. Blending physical comedy, movement, song and audience interaction, the show introduces ‘Almost’, an irrepressibly optimistic clown supposedly dispatched by the World Health Organization to solve the global loneliness epidemic – one room full of strangers at a time. The premise draws on real-world concerns. In 2023, the World Health Organization identified loneliness as a major global health challenge, while research published in 2025 estimated that one in six people worldwide experiences significant loneliness at any given time. Social isolation has also been linked to hundreds of thousands of premature deaths each year. In Here Comes Almost, however, the response is anything but conventional. Armed with a dragon onesie, infectious enthusiasm and increasingly outlandish ideas, Almost attempts to transform a room of strangers into a community through games, dancing, laughter and ever more ambitious schemes. As each plan inevitably spirals into comic disaster, the clown’s unwavering optimism gives way to a more thoughtful exploration of what genuine human connection really means. Created in response to Seltzer’s own experiences of loneliness, queerness and self-expression, the production examines the challenges of finding authentic relationships in an increasingly digital world, particularly for people who exist outside traditional social norms. While the show acknowledges the seriousness of the subject, it does so through humour, absurdity and warmth rather than offering easy answers. Instead, it celebrates the fleeting but meaningful moments of connection that can emerge when strangers share an experience together. Based in New York, Seltzer is known for combining clowning, theatre, drag, movement and live audience interaction into playful and emotionally resonant performances. Alongside creating original theatre, they also work as a live event poet, writing spontaneous poems for strangers across the city. With Here Comes Almost, Seltzer brings that distinctive mix of vulnerability, comedy and optimism to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for the very first time, inviting audiences to laugh, reflect and perhaps leave feeling just a little less alone. Website: Here Comes Almost | ZOO25