Kerry Godliman: This Isn�t What I Was Expecting, Pleasance Dome
Star rating ***
Wendy Wason - Things I Didn't Know I Didn't Know, Gilded Balloon Teviot
Star rating **
Josie Long - All of the Planet's Wonders (Shown in Detail),Pleasance Courtyard
Star rating ****
Kerry Godliman, pictured, has been keeping her expectations in check since a disappointing experience in a Little Chef - but, nevertheless, her heart must have been sinking during the opening minutes of Monday evening's show. Perhaps the tea-time slot was to blame, or maybe the weather, but for some reason the small audience was almost completely unresponsive, putting to the test her opening claim that she performs for the love of it and therefore doesn't despair at a minimal turnout.
Her solo Fringe debut certainly deserves a warmer reception. Godliman is a natural and very likeable comic who has honed her delivery over years on the circuit. Her act is less self-deprecating than it once was - perhaps because she's now a mother and fiancee - but she is a fine observer of the minor irritations of modern life, and her impression of the entire Facebook website is spot-on.
Wendy Wason found a far more favourable audience across at the Gilded Balloon, despite the fact her debut show is rougher around the edges. Dressed in a lovely frock in homage to Audrey Hepburn's character in Breakfast at Tiffany's, the Edinburgh-born but England-based comic offers a run-down of things she didn't know she didn't know - starting with Holly Golightly's actual occupation.
Her inspiration comes from Donald Rumsfeld's famously bamboozling speech of 2003 - not exactly topical, then, but a firm enough peg on which to hang tales of post-divorce dating, parenthood and what sounds like a spell of depression. Wason is a confident and charismatic performer, but she mis-fires with a few of her ventures into "dark" territory (including a couple of off-tangent references to her young kids) and has a tendency to laugh at her own jokes.
Some may favour a flirty giggle to the bows and curtseys with which Josie Long punctuates her most erudite observations, but those who know what to expect from the wide-eyed but whip-smart young comic are already laughing. Those who don't respond appropriately are very gently condemned with Dizzee Rascal lyrics - a sign that Long's persona has evolved, ever so slightly, from loving everyone to favouring those who are already on her level.
Individuals who do not appreciate museums, rigorous debate or bar graphs drawn in felt tip will not appreciate Josie Long, but anyone who entered Blue Peter competitions as a child or went star-gazing as an adult will likely find common ground with this aspiring polymath.
Long has been reading about the Enlightenment and wishing she'd lived in the eighteenth century - but if she had, she wouldn't be delighting cynical modern audiences with her boundless enthusiasm for everything from Hieronymus Bosch and her favourite insects to her plans for a museum of Edinburgh ephemera. Lucky for us, then, that she didn't.
