Andrew Stanley: Some Things That Occurred To Me In The Last While That I Thought You Should Know About

The room temperature in the Balcony Room at the Gilded Balloon is already stratospheric, and Andrew Stanley has been jumping up and down on the spot for a full three minutes. This is not good.

Visibly drenched in sweat by the end of his full, allotted sixty minutes, Stanley's boyish delight in recounting his anecdotes is highly contagious. The best moments of tonight's set come when he feeds off this energy in his exchanges with the audience, with Fringe-going couples in particular coming under scrutiny. Audience members are the characters in his musings on relationships, marriage and sex, and this immediacy serves his show well. It isn't hugely original stuff, and much of the material covers familiar stand-up territory in this way. Some portions feel rather too easy; surely there can only be so many whimsical musings on the native Scotch temperament? You'd think an otherwise experienced stand-up and compère was running dry on material...

Perhaps a harsh conclusion to draw. Nonetheless, the breathless energy that Stanley invests in his gravelly chatter keeps the crowd rapt, and an affable style of humour ensures high spirits in this sweat-box of a venue. It is telling, though, that most of the laughter comes from the front few rows. An exhausting hour for Stanley, but his brand of unadventurous, well-tested comedy is probably best expended on the late show circuit.