Sun May 13, 8pm, Perth Concert Hall and Theatre, Perth, £18.50 (returns only), 01738 621031

Jimmy Carr's apparent ubiquity as the smirking face of Channel 4 comedy has positioned the former marketing man as a Marmite brand, someone you either love or you hate, yet who somehow seems far slicker or more oleaginous than the dark, yeasty gloop, depending on your point of view. Though rarely comfortable bantering with an audience, the Limerick-born "plastic paddy" in a suit is a brilliant joke technician, attaching a thoroughly English spin of polite, sadistic condescension to the one-liner mastery of his American heroes, Emo Phillips and Steven Wright. Fiercely intelligent, he possesses an acute awareness of what constitutes the line of offensiveness and is shrewd enough occasionally to cross it and not apologise.

Conscious, perhaps, of his limited TV shelf-life, Carr has been singularly driven in his ambition, and began his career by religiously following stand-up three or four times a week for two years. He's already fronted gameshows and panel quizzes, appeared on the American chatshow circuit, written a passionate, informed book on the origins of jokes, smiled weakly in some dire British movies and was the first major stand-up to perform a virtual reality gig in the online world of Second Life. No shrinking violet, this vicious but prissy performer even has an orchid named after him.

He plays Aberdeen Music Hall on Monday and Tuesday.