Amanda Knox to bring stand-up show to Edinburgh Fringe in controversial signing
The show by the controversial figure is expected to feature material about the trial following her former roommate Meredith Kercher’s death
Amanda Knox, the woman who was accused of killing her British roommate Meredith Kercher in Italy in 2007, is set to perform her new stand-up gig at the Edinburgh Fringe in August.
Ms Knox, now 38, began her comedy career last year. Her routine, Cartwheel, a reference to the exercises she reportedly did while waiting to be questioned at the police station following her roommate’s death, is expected to feature jokes about the investigation and trial.
According to reports, she is signed up to play at the Gilded Balloon Teviot but the comedy club has not yet commented on the planned gig.
The 38-year-old’s expected Edinburgh debut has already proven controversial and sparked backlash among those close to Ms Kercher’s family.
Speaking to The Sun, the family’s lawyer Francesco Maresca called her appearance an “offensive and deplorable” insult to the young woman’s memory.
Ms Kercher, a 21-year-old Leeds University student, was found dead on the floor of her room in Perugia, Italy, in November 2007, after being stabbed and sexually assaulted.
Ms Knox, her roommate at the time, was sentenced alongside her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito to 26 years in prison following the initial murder trail in 2009.
In 2011, the conviction was overturned and Ms Knox was released, but the acquittal was overturned and a retrial ordered. Both Ms Knox and her former boyfriend were acquitted definitively in 2015.
Another man, Rudy Guede, was convicted of the killing in 2008.
Ms Knox is now married and has two children. She has a podcast called Hard Knox and has been the subject of several documentaries.
Her most recent documentary titled Mouth of the Wolf: Amanda Knox Returns to Italy sees the 38-year-old return to the country to confront her prosecutor.
The controversial figure took up comedy early last year. In her most high-profile performance, she opened for US comic Nikki Glaser in Seattle in front of 3,000 people.
In that gig she joked she was the human equivalent of the white/gold or blue/black dress that took the internet by storm, and said she’d “rather be heckled than shackled”.
Speaking about her embrace of comedy, she said: “I think that finding the ability to laugh at the bad things that have happened to you and find the absurdity in the human condition [is important].
“I really love how comedy allows me to feel connected to other people.”
Gilded Balloon has been approached for comment.
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