EDINBURGH 2015 - Review: JAMES ACASTER: REPRESENT, Pleasance Courtyard, 15 Aug 2015

As stand-up comedians go, James Acaster has got to rank among the more unusual. Skulking around the stage like a demented hyena (not that I can claim to have seen one of those), he's almost as entertaining to watch as to listen to.

Almost.

The content of this hour wins out though; Acaster is a gifted comic whose material is bursting with clever insight, deftly wrong-footing the audience at points by seemingly heading in some strange directions before paying off perfectly. Acaster's comedy, while not so clever as to be offputting in the slightest, is the kind that makes you feel smarter just listening to it.

Seeing how a comedian deals with spontaneous disruptions in the show can often elicit the biggest laughs of the night, and that was absolutely the case on the night I saw Acaster: a latecomer, a boisterous woman who chose to loudly respond to rhetorical questions and a sleeping gentleman in the fourth row all found themselves the subject of his good-natured but pointed wit, and the audience erupted in appreciation.

Highlights of an excellent hour include a brilliant account of inadequate massage techniques, some musings on how there's got to be a person on the planet who is the actual worst - whoever it is, they likely don't know they are, but may have an inkling that they're in the Bottom 50 - and ends on a strange but perfectly appropriate note, as Acaster devours a Christingle. You had to be there.

James Acaster: Represent continues at Pleasance Courtyard until August 30