Tony Kinsella sums up Edinburgh

The Russell Pannell Show, Punctured Balloon, 8pm

Semi-regular telly favourite sellotapes a radio mic to the side of his face and performs an energetic sub-McIntyre set about things in cupboards and how amusing his kids are, even though he looks about 12. Builds to an hysterical climax about buying hummus in Waitrose, complete with a fast-paced dialogue involving a silly-voiced-checkout girl. T-shirts available for £25 each in the foyer.

With Hilarious Consequences, Cheviot Hill, 2.30pm.

An improv show in which The Box Tickers, three lapsed stand-ups of varying genders and ethnicities, pay vague lip service to generic suggestions from their six mates in the audience and end every 12-minute meandering narrative with a reference to Michael Gove being a twat. Watch them weave the same daily parody of a low budget goth-horror movie, loosely based on the bar staff’s suggestion, ‘Get off, you’re shit!’

Carry On Campus, Vom Bar, 4.20pm

A weird and wacky posse of undergraduates from Blackburn University double their academic debt with a debut show that’s high on hyped-up zest but still manages to crowbar in three jokes about wanking and one about a hipster. Free rag mag for every punter.

The Lund That Time Forgot, Farmer’s Gate, 11.30am.

Hack journeyman comic, Mikki Bland, sacrifices all of the jokes and routines developed over a decade and opts for a show that depends exclusively on his enthusiasm for Nordic Noir Scandi-dramas like The Killing, Borgen and The Bridge, usually to a bewildered audience who prefer soaps. Please note that this show is performed partly in English, occasionally in Danish, but mostly in a cod imitation of that chef from The Muppets.

All men Are Bastards, Laughing Whores at The Chip On The Shoulder, 7pm.

A quartet of female comics, plus six different female guests each day, including at least two LGBT acts, rant aggressively about the under-representation of female comics at The Fringe and why this is a patriarchal conspiracy. Contains body piercings.

Yew Tree Is In The Eye Of The Beholder, The Thunder Dome, 2pm.

Jaded and disillusioned middle-aged Fringe veteran, Sammy Professional, thinks of a topical pun when asked for his show title in October and spends the next nine months trying to write a few gags to at least hint at the hastily emailed pun, before dying on his arse in three previews and cobbling together a composite of previous shows in the hope that nobody will notice. Nobody does.

Mad, Bad And Dangerous To Book, The Cake Stand, Midnight.

A random selection of half-decent Fringe acts, desperate for any opportunity to hand out flyers, perform chunks of their main sets while liberally adding the word ‘cunt’ for the benefit of binge-drunk lager louts who are now struggling to figure out the lamest puns as if they were questions on Only Connect.

Published: 1 Aug 2014