Amanda Knox is set to perform a stand-up comedy show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with punchlines about her wrongful conviction for the murder of Meredith Kercher.
The American, 38, rose to international prominence throughout a series of highly publicised trials in which she and her then boyfriend were twice convicted and twice acquitted for the murder of her British flat-mate Meredith, 21, in Perugia, Italy, in 2007.
Ms Knox launched her comedy career last year and has previously performed to an audience of 3,000 people as an opening act for American comedian Nikki Glaser.
She is now gearing up to debut her stand-up routine titled Cartwheel which will reference the four years she spent in jail at the world’s largest arts and media festival in August at the Gilded Balloon – one of the Big Four venue operators at Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
The name is a reference to an allegation from an Italian police officer who claimed he saw her performing the splits and a cartwheel inside the police station on the night she was arrested and questioned over Meredith’s murder.
That claim became central to the prosecution’s narrative allowing them to highlight the strange behaviour as an indication she was not mourning her friend and was indifferent to her death.
Francesco Maresca, the Kercher family lawyer, said that ‘once again’ he and Meredith’s siblings were ‘speechless’ at Knox’s blatant ‘poor taste’.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Maresca said: ‘Once again Amanda Knox is using the tragedy of what happened to poor Meredith for her own gain, it really is poor taste.
Amanda Knox (pictured in 2025) is set to perform a stand-up comedy show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with punchlines about her wrongful conviction for the murder of Meredith Kercher
British student Meredith Kercher (pictured), 21, was killed at her shared home in Perugia, Italy , in November 2007
Amanda Knox (pictured in 2008) and her boyfriend at the time Raffaele Sollecito were convicted in their first trial of killing Kercher but were ultimately exonerated by Italy’s highest court in 2015
‘One minute she claims to feel sympathy for the Kercher family, the next she is embarking on yet another initiative which will take advantage of the Kercher family’s pain.
‘I really fail to understand why she can’t see the significance and the impact he gestures, words and actions have on Meredith’s family.
‘Has she no understanding or respect for their feelings or how they suffer every time she does something like this ?
‘I’m speechless and just cannot comprehend why she keeps doing this. Evidently, she has no intention of respecting the memory of Meredith. It’s yet another initiative to make money and profit from what happened.
‘Enough is enough. She should stop and have some respect.’
Through their lawyer, Meredith’s family have previously accused Ms Knox of attempting to profit from her murder with the various books, documentaries, films and TV series about the case.
In a previous statement to Newsweek after she announced her Hulu series The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox, the lawyer said: ‘In general, neither I nor the Kercher family have been pleased with the initiatives Amanda Knox has undertaken over the years, as they are unjustified and disrespectful of poor Meredith’s memory.
‘Her behaviour has always prevented any rapprochement between Meredith’s family and Knox herself as it was always over the top and extremely excessive. I’m sure they won’t watch the TV drama because once again it is violating the memory of the beautiful girl that Meredith was.’
Speaking about the rift, Ms Knox previously told The Hollywood Reporter: ‘What they’ve conveyed is a distancing from me, but that’s understandable, considering the myriad lies they were told about me.
‘Honestly, it’s very common in wrongful conviction cases. But I think about Meredith all the time. She was a young 21-year-old girl who went to Italy to have the best experience of her life. And she didn’t get to go home. We were both just young girls who were trying to live our best lives. So, we are trying to honour that.’
Ms Knox was filmed laughing and smiling during a visit to the UK in April for a friend’s wedding which she used as an opportunity to promote her latest documentary about Meredith’s murder titled ‘Mouth of the Wolf’.
But her visit was thrown into turmoil just hours before she was due on stage to introduce one of two planned screenings of the documentary after it was ruled it could not be shown at Greenwich Picturehouse in south London.
Ticket-holders were emailed shortly before the 6.45pm start time on April 21 and told the film did not have the necessary rating.
An email, via ticketing website Eventbrite, read: ‘Due to the documentary not having a British Board of Film Classification, it cannot be screened to a public audience.’
Organisers from the wrongful-conviction charity Innocence Project London said Ms Knox and her husband Christopher Robinson, who directed the film, would instead take questions from the audience, followed by a book signing.
She also made an appearance on Good Morning Britain where she said she believes Lucy Letby may be innocent and claimed there are ‘convincing’ explanations for the deaths of babies in her care.
The activist also revealed she had sent a letter of support to Lucy Letby in prison as well as a copy of her memoir ‘Free’.
Karen and Katy Koren Artistic Directors of The Gilded Balloon said: ‘The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is an open-access festival.
‘As a Fringe venue, we provide a platform for a wide range of voices, in line with the Fringe’s long-standing commitment to freedom of expression (within the confines of the law) and ensure our audiences can make informed choices.
‘Artists and companies choose to participate at our venue and take on the financial and creative responsibility for their work. We do not curate the content of individual performances. This particular show is a one-woman piece exploring themes of motherhood, presented independently by the artist.’
