Star rating: **** One of the least remarked upon characteristics of the Glasgow Comedy Festival is how promising, distinctive stand-ups, showered with awards and critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe, can still struggle with the former's more boisterous crowds, less interested in art than entertainment and with no respect for reputation.

Star rating: ****

One of the least remarked upon characteristics of the Glasgow Comedy Festival is how promising, distinctive stand-ups, showered with awards and critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe, can still struggle with the former's more boisterous crowds, less interested in art than entertainment and with no respect for reputation.

Kevin Bridges, by contrast, employs a clever turn of phrase but first and foremost writes material for punters seeking a laugh. The 22-year-old Clydebanker has yet to take a solo show to the Fringe but, over five years at Glasgow's comedy gathering, has built a following ensuring he quickly sold out two nights at Oran Mor.

Put a mike in front of him and he does the business. True, he was playing to his ain folk. And it's the laughter of recognition when he bemoans the bus from Clydebank to Easterhouse, not least because alongside lines about priests with Tourette's syndrome and taking a rare form of revenge in somebody's kettle, these gags will be familiar to regular observers of his greatest hits package. Nevertheless, there's no slighting Bridges's ability to captivate a big room, which despite his experience, remains remarkable in a comic of his relative youth. His banter with the front rows is easy but never overly indulgent.

And while he capably nails the holy trinity of self-deprecating Glaswegian humour - drinking, violence and ill-health - with lean, punchy routines, he intersperses these with subtler, more idiosyncratic observations, such as the homogenising speech patterns of Scottish radio presenters. A storming set then but well within Bridges's comfort zone and one anticipates his first Fringe show keenly.

Part of the Magners' Glasgow International Comedy Festival.