Original Review:

Show Rating:

Any comedy night with Steve Williams on the bill is guaranteed to get a bit enthusiastic so it's no surprise he's chosen to name his debut solo show at the festival Excitable.

Williams is a bubbly, friendly character, one of those comedians it's impossible not to like. He opens the show with some friendly advice for anyone trying to get from one end of the Royal Mile to the other successfully without people bothering you, carry a handful of flyers - or even better a take bible with you.

On spotting a woman with a gammy leg on the front row he briefly chats amiably, no one's in for a merciless ribbing here. Later on, eager to maintain the niceness of the gig, when he repeats a racial slur shouted at a football match he quick to say it's not his view and explain his reasons for mentioning it.

Don't get him wrong though, his show's not all fluffiness; Williams is perfectly capable of an incisive, cutting joke. Every gag is carefully crafted, you'd be hard pushed to find a lazy or half realised line in here. Though many of his observations have been heard before - how there are so many Aussies in Edinburgh, the recent freak weather conditions in Britain and the oxymoron that is the veggie barbecue - all are given a twist, an unexpected punch line that put Williams' material above the rest.

Williams is innovative in his descriptions making a leap in imagination to see tofu as being like a wetsuit and theorising about why David Gray moves his head about so much while singing. Go see .

Marissa Burgess