Tim Key

Tim Key wanders distractedly onto the stage and silently but amusingly prepares himself, the long silence irresistibly amusing instead of embarrassingly awkward. He removes one of the many small notebooks secreted on his person and reads out the poem, ‘How Much for the Goat?’. For the next 20 minutes the audience barely has time to catch their breath as he regales them with a series of verses whose hilarity is matched only by their brevity. Had an emergency forced you to leave this show halfway through you would have seen one of the Fringe’s highlights.

Unfortunately things start to ‘go wrong’, the technician seemingly unable to get the music or the lighting right causing much consternation on the part of Mr Key. As the show wears on, the problems increase but so too does the nagging feeling that this is not incompetence but a conceit (a feeling that becomes more concrete when the technician is asked to wear a dress). An ill-advised piece of audience participation serves to derail the latter half further and the ending drifts in and the audience drift out with thoughts of what could have been. (Gordon Eldrett)

Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 27 Aug, 9.45pm, £9.50–£10.50 (£8–£9).