Unmasked: The Magic of Angus Baskerville - Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2026

​For his third consecutive Edinburgh Fringe, Angus Baskerville returns with Unmasked, an entirely new show that takes his acclaimed storytelling and magic in a more personal direction. Drawing on his experiences of growing up autistic and with ADHD, Baskerville explores the masks we build around ourselves, the effort involved in hiding who we are and the relief that can come from finally dropping them.
​
There are plenty of magicians at the Fringe, but what sets Baskerville apart is not simply his ability to make the impossible happen. It is Angus himself. He is becoming something of a Fringe staple, and it is easy to see why. His audiences span families, young people, adults and older generations and he has created a show that can entertain almost anyone while still having something meaningful to say.

Magic has often been accompanied by a fascination with revealing its secrets in recent years. Baskerville takes a different approach. His interest is not so much in explaining how the trick works, but in explaining how he has learned to navigate a world that has rarely been designed for neurodivergent individuals. He uses the platform his magic has given him to talk openly about autism and ADHD, how they have shaped his life and how they have influenced his career. 
​
There is something particularly powerful in seeing Baskerville occupy the stage so confidently. His show becomes more than an hour of magic. It is a demonstration of what is possible. For neurodivergent performers, simply existing in a space like the Fringe can require an enormous amount of unseen work: navigating the sensory demands of performing under bright lights, managing the constant social interaction of promoting a show, dealing with rejection when someone takes your flyer only to throw it in the bin while you are still standing there, or finding the resilience to deal with a difficult review. None of this is necessarily visible from the audience, but Baskerville's willingness to be open about his own experiences makes his presence on that stage feel all the more significant.

But Unmasked never turns him into a spokesperson at the expense of being a performer. His neurodivergence is part of the story of how he became the magician he is. Watching Baskerville perform is genuinely awe-inspiring. There are moments when the only reasonable response is to sit back and think: how the hell did he do that? He invites us to question what we think we know about people and neurodivergence, while giving us something completely inexplicable to marvel at. 

Lee Hutchison

4/5

Runs until August 28th at The Space UK on the Royal Mile