REVIEW: Steve Burns: Alive, EdFringe 2026 ★★★★

What happens when the world thinks you’re dead but you’re very much alive? From 1996 to 2002, Steve Burns was the world’s beloved problem-solver on Nickelodeon’s Blue’s Clues. When he left the show, the internet decided his fate: car crashes, drug overdoses, murder conspiracies. Steve Burns was dead… except he wasn’t.

This is a show for anyone that grew up with him and the blue dog in the cartoon house with the talking condiments. The ones who remembered the rumours about a childhood icon passing away, but never really knowing the truth from the lies.

As the audience walk into the theatre you see that iconic red chair which leaves us a question before it starts: ‘Is that the actual chair?!’ and before the show even begins the audience is full of stories of the last time they’ve seen that chair and the memories they have attached to it. The old songs and scene re-enactments and everyone showing each other what they look like at that age it’s a real nostalgia trip for those who grew up with bones on their screens now about to be in front of them in real life.

Burns delivered his story what happened through those years so incredibly the mixed media approach of both on stage performance and performing to a camera which is what he knows the most. This was one of my favourite elements of the show and also marked the first time of this mixed media in an almost ‘Jamie Lloyd’ style but was also incredibly candid. The imperfections were there. He is human and that was the best thing about it.

This show is his life. From how we ended up on the show and his acting start up, landing this role almost as soon as he landed in New York with 300 bucks and two bags to experiences he’s never told in an audience of what it really meant for him to be a role model and someone children all over the world looked up to – including the audience sat in front of him that show. He is finally reclaiming his story.

This isn’t just another celebrity show with stories that I’ve been told 1 million times before, this is new raw and really what Fringe is all about.

You can catch Steve Burns: Alive at Underbelly Cowgate until August 30th from 17:20 (60mins). Tickets are available on the Edinburgh Fringe Online Box Office.