Finding the Humour in Hauntings: Hannah Byczkowski Brings ‘Killer’ to the Fringe

The Essentials

1. 1

   Traitors winner Hannah Byczkowski tackles mortality with sharp dark comedy in her debut Fringe hour Killer.
2. 2

   Drawing on her palliative care background, she disarms existential fear with playful crowd work and charm.
3. 3

   Clever callbacks and infectious warmth turn taboo topics into one of the most upbeat shows on the circuit.

Death, spirits, and the unknown don’t always arrive wrapped in brooding gothic gloom; sometimes they turn up wearing vibrant stripes and delivering rapid-fire punchlines.

Audiences deep in the online paranormal community will already know Hannah Byczkowski as one-half of the smash-hit podcast Ghost Huns alongside Suzie Preece. Amassing over 1.4 million followers on TikTok by trading chilling ghost encounters, bizarre listener hauntings, and chaotic occult banter, Byczkowski has made a career out of mixing spectral phenomena with raucous comedy. Beyond her podcasting fame and winning BBC’s The Traitors, her debut Edinburgh Festival Fringe stand-up hour, Killer, pivots directly into the macabre territory that In Pure Spirit readers relish: mortality, the inevitable end, and the bizarre superstitions that follow us to the grave.

Taking up residence in the intimate Turret space at Gilded Balloon Teviot, itself a majestic neo-gothic fortress in Bristo Square, Byczkowski transforms humanity’s greatest existential fear into an hour of unapologetic, buoyant comedy.

The Review: Hannah Byczkowski – Killer

Drawing directly on her former career as a palliative care worker alongside a lifelong, morbid fascination with the Titanic tragedy, Byczkowski approaches mortality with the breezy candour of someone who has spent years around the threshold of life and death. Rather than falling into solemnity or grim cynicism, she uses her intimate familiarity with end-of-life care to strip away fear and build immediate, electric rapport with the room.

Her crowd work is playful and sharp. Utilising feigned outrage and mock indignation, she quizzes audience members about their mundane choices, marriage dynamics, and what questions they would want answered before dying. When an attendee stumbles into the “wrong” answer, she gleefully sentences them to doom – yet her innate warmth ensures the entire room feels in on the joke rather than picked on.

While Killer begins with familiar conversational pacing, the hour reveals a tight, calculated architecture as it progresses. Byczkowski maintains high momentum throughout, letting throwaway lines from early in the set resurface as payoff callbacks in the finale. It is a confident, laugh-out-loud debut that balances dark themes with infectious energy, turning mortality and the macabre into one of the most upbeat hours on the Fringe circuit.

Review Summary & Venue Info