US comedian Sofia May’s new show, The Buddha Wears Prada, is coming to Edinburgh Fringe this year.
“A dark stand-up comedy hour about Sofia May’s experience as a former member of a Buddhist cult’s inner circle, working as the assistant of a very chic, diabolical, female cult leader. After living the life of a religious Buddhist zealot in a secluded community deep into the Colorado Rocky Mountains for years, Sofia hit the road and blew the whistle. It isn’t a famous cult yet, but through exposés, podcasts and general trash-talking, Sofia’s trying to change that. What’s more, now a self-proclaimed “Buddhaphobe”, she intends to ruin your relationship with Buddhism too.”
Where: Other Room at Laughing Horse @ Dragonfly
When: 6-30 Aug (not Mon)
Ticket link: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/the-buddha-wears-prada
What can you tell us about your show? What is it about and where did the idea come from?
The Buddha Wears Prada is about my time as a member of the inner circle of a Buddhist cult. I lived for a 7-year period off the grid in the Rocky Mountains, working as the assistant to an impossibly chic and diabolical female Buddhist Cult leader. I have always wanted to do a comedy show about this period of my life, but it is such an ambitious topic that I haven’t known how to get my head around it. So thoroughly traumatized, I have barely been able to speak of it at all.
However, last September (2025) Be Scofield (the journalist responsible for exposing the UK doomsday cult: Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light) wrote an exposé about my cult. I am among the key witnesses in the exposé, am the only survivor to use their real name so far, and am also the whistleblower of this cult.
The publication of the exposé led to sharing my story on major platforms, radio programs, and speaking in seminars. That is to say, it allowed me to find my voice. And now that I’ve found it, I can’t shut the f*ck up. When the expose came out, it was clear that there was an urgency to strike while the iron was hot, and use my comedic voice to heal myself and also use humor as a blatant act of rebellion and put these suckers on blast.
What better way to put a cult leader and her flying monkeys in the hot seat than to use the power of humor to illuminate their evil-doing?
How would you sell it to audiences in one paragraph?
On the tails of her knock-out 2025 debut to the Edinburgh Fringe, Sofia May brings another jaw-dropping solo to Fringe 2026 this time about her 7-year experience in a Buddhist cult as the assistant to a diabolically chic female cult leader. This hour of punchy dark stand-up is part of a whistleblowing rampage, brought to you by the only person in the cult with the balls to speak out and use
her real name.
This Buddhaphobic tell-all will have you in stitches and doubting the world’s most darling religion, as well as have you mesmerized by the delicate feminine evil of this very famous Buddhist leader.
Do you enjoy participating in the Fringe? And do you have any moments you particularly remember?
I love the Fringe. This will be my 4th Fringe, and it’s lame to put it this way, but it has become my raison de’etre. It’s a pop-up comedy dimension where you get more stage time than you could have ever dreamed, which means that as a comic, you’re just drowning in your favorite activity. You also get to meet amazing comedians and be inspired by them. But the greatest gift the Fringe really has to offer is that it’s one of the rare platforms where comedians can really push the art form of stand-up comedy.
Right now comedy is in a period of degradation, with social-media algorithms privileging content with the lowest hanging fruit because it appeals to the widest audience. On the contrary, the Fringe privileges those doing something unique—followers be-damned. They ask: who is doing something interesting? How can we help them develop that? This is the attitude that has produced the greatest comedic acts ever. And then the combination of this creative encouragement with seemingly infinite stage time really cultivates and fortifies that artistic vision.
Last year, my debut show, 9/11 Birds and the Bees, had a sold-out run; I received an award for Best Performer from Fringe Europe, was nominated as Best Newcomer in the British Comedy Guide awards, and received multiple rave reviews. It was an extremely touching reception to a piece that meant so much to me.
But I would say that the most memorable moment of that run was during a particularly great show, with an incredibly hot crowd; I started to weep in a moment of remembrance of what we lost on 9/11. I continued the set, with tears streaming down my face, and the punch lines hitting even harder. But the reason that the tears came is because the audience had been so present with me. Their rapt attention allowed me to be that present with the material, and there was this come-to-Jesus moment of truth that kind of brought me to my knees.
What are you looking forward to the most in Edinburgh?
I am very excited to see how this piece evolves. I’ve run it a number of times already, but there’s nothing like performing a piece every day for 3.5 weeks to jettison it to the next level.
What’s next for the show?
Touring with it. I think it’s an extremely unusual story and quite thought-provoking. I am hoping to bring it to cities where other survivors from my cult live, so they can enjoy it as an act of catharsis and rebellion as well. Eventually, I’ll film it to publish online.
But there’s a distinct possibility that before that, I will have to develop a part two to this solo, as it is impossible to fit 7-years of cult life into an hour. I still feel like there’s so much more gold to mine. Writing these jokes has also been alchemizing, and with every traumatic event that I turn into hilarity, another piece of me heals.