Fringe Comedy

Gayle Anderson

Michelle Wolf

Pleasance

Four stars

Russ Peers

Gilded Balloon -The Counting House

Three stars

Jake Yapp

Underbelly - Bristo Square

Two stars

LIKE a good wine, Michelle Wolf travels well. These may be the New Yorker's first gigs outside North America but the material is slick, sharp and mainly spot on. In So Brave, she provides a caustic commentary on a whole range of subjects and stereotypes. Fasten your seatbelts, this is going to be a bumpy night!. Unsurprisingly, the first subject to fall under The Daily Show correspondent'ssteely gaze is the US election. It's a tongue lashing triumph. Mr Trump is given short shrift whilst her at times rather reluctant endorsement of Hillary Clinton and thoughts on the consequences of a first female president are intelligent and well -observed. It's difficult to find anything new to say in this current presidential campaign but she manages to pull it off with acerbic aplomb. Gender inequality, weddings, action heroes, Caitlyn Jenner - she shares her offbeat opinions on a whole smorgasbord of subjects. Sharp, shrill and at times, shocking, you may not always agree with what she says but the quality and quantity of her material will leave you suitably impressed. This was an extremely impressive, polished debut but one that would have benefitted at times from a little added warmth alongside the undoubted wit.

Runs until August 28

NEWS flash. Not all gay men are as stylish as Tom Ford and waspishly witty as Oscar Wilde. In Bad Gay? fortysomething, Russ Peers takes a close up and personal look at these popular misconceptions. In doing so, he attempts to figure out where he, a big, beardy lad from Barrow-in-Furness fits in. It's only a decade since he himself came out ago and feels he knows more about pies than partying. At times, Russ is a bit of a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a Jack Wills shirt. Someone who, "likes a West End musical but knows his way round an industrial sander." It's a clever concept for a show and he soon has the audience well onside with deliciously dry observations and witty one-liners. There are a few dips, though. Reading texts full of his mum's malapropisms feels a little tired and dare I say it, stereotyped. It's a shame too that on the night I'm reviewing, a couple of his best punchlines are pirated by an over-zealous friend at the back who's come along to show their support. Good stuff, though. The odds of a promising career in comedy are, like his dishwasher, well stacked and definitely in his favour.

Runs until August 29

JAKE Yapp has an impressively good memory. It may have been seven years since he's performed here but he opens his show, One In a Million, with an accurately observed skit on the different forms of Fringe flyerers you're likely to have to gird your loins and run the gauntlet of this festival. Warming to his theme, he throws in some razor sharp impersonations of the pick 'n' mix of performers currently crowding these cobbled streets and sweatbox venues. So far, so funny. Sadly, things get a little strange and disjointed from this point onwards. A show of hands reveals only four vegans yet he chooses to talk at length about tempeh - a fungal foodstuff that the vast majority of us feel very happy to remain ignorant of. He follows up with more obscure and niche market material. Hippocrates, psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich, documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis and even fixed gear bikes. It leaves the audience undoubtedly better informed but sadly, none the wiser. Bemused rather than amused. A patently intelligent comic with some impressive characterisations, Jake just needs some tighter, more focused material to match those killer first fifteen minutes..

Runs until August 28