Tony Law 'Revenge of the Dog of Time'

Tony Law's second outing with his time-travelling sausage dog is a surreal, occasionally baffling and frequently uproarious experience. For those of you as yet unversed in the bizarre mythology that Law has forged over his last few shows, there exist 37 such dogs on the planet, most of whom attach themselves to a human for company on their adventures. Despite his Canadian accent, Law was in fact born in eighteenth Century Morocco, enrolling as a mercenary in the Sultan's army before hooking up with one such 'dog of time,' Cartridge Davidson, and escaping to safer pockets of time and space.

Law delivers this nonsense with such vigour and conviction, that it is impossible not to be drawn in to his increasingly complex comic universe, swept along by a narrative that is by turns whimsical, alarming and just plain weird. For this show, he has engaged the services of two other performers, who take roles as a polar bear and a fellow time-traveller, interrupting Law's stand-up to talk with him on the space-phone. Intent as it is on telling a story, there are times when the show loses pace, with lengthy scene-setting that delivers no punchlines. But if you're willing to go with the flow, the laughs will jump up and wind you when you least expect it. Great, genre-bending stuff.