Andrew Maxwell

Anyone who goes to see a barrel-load of comedy this August will no doubt witness stand-up after stand-up making a fleeting reference to the summer riots, if only to prove they have a handle on what’s going on in outside the Edinburgh bubble. Not Andrew Maxwell. He devotes around 20 minutes of The Lights Are On to analyse in very specific, and frankly hilarious detail, the reactions to the fact that many parts of the country have been ablaze this month. Not Scotland, though, as Maxwell points out: ‘far too damp’.

Probably the majority of the Fringe’s stand-ups will, night after night , professionally deliver their delicately honed script leaving the potential for severe flagging come 29 August. Maxwell has opted to, perhaps temporarily, completely ditch almost a third of his prepared set but all you can do is revel in the mischief this comically-attuned Dubliner makes.

He also weaves utter magic from his observations about Edinburgh’s junkie couples, the media reaction to the Middleton sisters and the varying attitudes towards religion in Scotland and the US featuring an array of imagery and metaphors that live long in the memory. The lights are on, and Andrew Maxwell is well and truly at home.

Assembly George Square, 623 3030, until 29 Aug, 9pm, £13–£15 (£12–£14).