REVIEW: Pedro Leandro: Soft Animal, BIGHEAD Comedy in association with Independent Talent Group, EdFringe 2025 ★★★★

An amusing and entertaining night of comedy, Pedro Leandro’s Soft Animal lives up to the name with an hour of gentle hilarity.

In this piece, Pedro talks us through his life, being the best at sex, his queerness and his role within the LGBTQ+ community as a ‘soft gay’. He is delightfully funny and throughout the piece makes reference to Alan Downs’ seminal book The Velvet Rage to explore the inherent experience of being queer making you an outlier, even before you have realised you are queer. It is a deeply insightful comedy about the queer experience that I would recommend to anyone.

I particularly enjoyed a rule Pedro established in the performance I saw, where if only one person cheered, he would then repeat the sentance they cheered at and make the whole crowd cheer and applaud. He also explicitly made the room make a group promise to laugh and cheer at every joke, adding to his soft gay persona with the gentle way he formed this promise.

Pedro made reference to the confidence of Lin Manuel Miranda with Hamilton, discussing how he cast himself as a character who is written to be a heroic man with one fault, he cheats on his wife because he is too sexy and desirable. As a theatre gay myself, I adored this. Pedro went on to discuss the 4th wall break at the end of Hamilton, where through lyrics and direction Lin Manuel Miranda congratulates himself for telling Hamiltons story. A lot of Pedro’s comedy was about his want to be remembered and have his story told, so it was only fitting to end his show in the exact same way, an excellent and hillarious call back.

Pedro Leandro’s Soft Animal feels like a safe space for the queer community.

Recommended Drink: Pair this with your finest Wine.

You can catch Pedro Leandro: Soft Animal until August 24th at Bunker Two at Pleasance Courtyard from 20:10 (60mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.