Pete Johannson's - Pete's On Earth

If you were to take a cursory glance at Pete Johansson’s set-list, you’d be forgiven for expecting this 2010 show to be middle-of-the-road stand-up fare. Pete’s on Earth is peppered with gags about the Canadian comic’s drugs of choice, obnoxious middle-class parents and his observations on the differences between Canadians, Americans and the British. But in Johansson’s hands, these potentially hack topics are imbued with vigour. He may have been nominated for the Best Newcomer Award at last year’s Fringe but Johansson has been plying his trade around the world for almost 20 years and boy does it show.

His shtick is honed and polished and the performance is seemingly effortless through a series of opinionated routines. While covering topics as global as over-population and religion and as personal as visits to a Korean massage parlour and just how much he dislikes his father, he maintains a delicious darkness and incorporates a frankness that’s often startling. This is stand-up as it should be.

Assembly Rooms, 623 3030, until 30 Aug (not 16), 9.30pm, £12–£13 (£11–12).