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Brendan Tran: HOLE IN THE WALL L'HOPITAL

 
Ross Anthony Review by Ross Anthony 3 Published: 10 Aug 2025 Gilded Balloon Patter House Show Dates: 30 Jul 2025-25 Aug 2025

Brendan Tran will make you laugh through the tears. Perhaps more accurately, this show will make you cackle through your trauma.

The gut-wrenching lurches between laughter and loss make it a stand-out Fringe performance

Brendan Tran’s Hole in the Wall L’Hopital is one man’s journey through grief after the passing of a father with whom he had a difficult relationship. It contains some quite funny queer comedy in an American style to get the audience comfortable before delving into its main subject matter. If you go into this show well aware of what you’re walking into, then it feels raw and self-aware. It is personally moving in how it makes light of an all-too-familiar tragedy.

If this were in the theatre listings, it would have rave reviews and glowing praise. It grapples with a deeply complicated struggle with heaps of humanity, levity, and outlandish gay audacity. Brendan feels like an inappropriate laugh at a funeral, or perhaps an over-the-top coming out at a wake. He is a hot mess brimming with vulnerability and soul.

The gut-wrenching lurches between laughter and loss make it a stand-out Fringe performance. Brace for whiplash.

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The Blurb:

If you've ever experienced loss, then this show was made for you. Brendan Tran, a Bob Curry Fellow from the world-renowned Second City comedy troupe in Chicago, pays tribute to his recently passed dad with this comedy special. A stand-up story of grief, the healthcare system and the hope that talking (and joking) about the death of a loved one can possibly help with healing. Only time will tell. 'Tremendous. So funny and touching, and relatable' (John Hartman from CBS's Ghosts).