Fringe Comedy

Bec Hill

Gilded Balloon

Three stars

Damien Slash

Pleasance Courtyard

Two stars

Alex Williamson

Gilded Balloon

One star

Gayle Anderson

Geek is chic at this year's Fringe and no-one has a higher quirky quotient than Bec Hill. The Adelaide-born comic brings her own brand of youth and YouTube-ness in her show, Caught On Tape. The theme is regrets. A major shoulda, woulda, coulda moment in her own life inspired her to conduct a social media survey on the subject. She's here to present her findings.A likeable personality, Bec bounces around the stage like a perky CBBC presenter.Well, like a perky CBBC presenter who's cut their own hair with some very blunt scissors. Regrets surrounding careers, bodily functions and bad dates are treated to some killer puns. 'Britain's Got Tangent' is bordering on genius. She loses both the crowd and her momentum, though when she turns her attention to the regrets involved in grieving for loved ones.The intention is wonderful, the execution maybe less so. While the show is undoubtedly a grin-fest, it's LOL light in parts. She opens and closes the performance with the animated flip chart art that's made her a social media favourite. It's undoubtedly the highlight of the show. Her visual interpretation of 'Je Ne Regret Rien' lyrics is inspired. If she could get the rather patchy comedy routine up to the same standard she could go from having a very good show to having a great one.

Until August 31

With one million YouTube hits and counting, Damien Slash(AKA Daniel Barker) is a fully paid-up member of this growing band of social media comics. He makes his Fringe debut with a character-based show, Überman. Wearing enough nylon to be in real danger of spontaneous combustion, he greets his slightly bemused arriving audience as businessman,Eric Swineblade. When it comes to buzzword bingo, this guy's got a full house.The voice and mannerisms are pure Alan Partridge. This venue has to be one of the hottest rooms in town so he deserves real credit for putting himself through some speedy and sweaty costume changes. The condescending mineral water critic and the garage MC are the crowd's favourite characters but both sketches go on a little too long. Others, such as the Cockney gambler and geeky gamer raise fewer laughs. The audio routine played during changes falls a bit flat and he's forced to work his socks off re-engaging the slightly distracted audience each time he returns to the stage. Slash is undoubtedly a talent performer but he needs to work on his dialogue and story lines if he wants to raise the laughter levels.

Until August 30

In That Guy From The Internet, Australian,Alex Williamson sets out to shock and offend. Judging by the number of walk outs on the night I was there, he succeeds.His sell-out crowd is mainly made up of gangs of twenty-something lads carrying double fistfuls of lager. They want Alex to bring his famous potty mouth out to play and he doesn't disappoint them. Dropping more C bombs than a bevy of BBC presenters, he talks about porn,prostitution and drug taking- lots of drug taking. It all falls a bit flat and only his die-hard fans appear to get the joke. The rest of us have trouble actually finding it. Alex may be aiming for cool and edgy but he ends up simply sounding immature. Sending him to his room for a very long time feels like the appropriate punishment.There are a couple of strangely jarring moments. During a disjointed slide show, he suddenly takes a little time out from cursing to stress the importance of good grammar. Just as we're recovering from this sudden outbreak of common-sense, he follows it up by confessing to being an ex history teacher. His report card reads, "Must do better".

Until August 31