Patti Harrison @ Pleasance Courtyard

Patti Harrison cultivates a certain amount of tension in an audience. Her comedy consists of blurring the lines between reality and invention, and the end result is, at times, a room of palpable uncertainty (even amongst the diehard fans – that’s the power of her performance). This might not sound like ideal conditions for comedy, but the uncertainty is very much the point – at times she even gets laughs whilst delivering (apparently) deadly serious monologues, as though the crowd are laughing from the sheer sensation of being kept on edge for so long. There are so many points throughout her Edinburgh Fringe debut where she leads us down the garden path of sincerity, only to ambush us with silliness, that when she closes by asking us to donate to Waverley Care on our way out, it still feels like it might be a bit, despite Pleasance's years of partnership with the charity.

The set features delightful and unexpected use of audio – and, in a second half which morphs into something akin to an impressions show, we’re treated to some impressive musical production (imagine if you wanted to write a song that was identifiably based on, but, for financial reasons, completely distinct from Running Up That Hill). A few of Harrison’s songs could stand to be shorter (a second verse only seems necessary if it’s going to raise the comedic stakes), but her delivery is so strong and ridiculous that she carries them off without exception.

What’s particularly striking about Harrison is how easy she makes it all look – you’d be forgiven for thinking she was flying by the seat of her pants for a full 60 minutes. This is just another layer to her performance, though. It’s at times bewildering, and certainly not for the faint of heart, but it’s a hard crafted show which defies expectation.

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Patti Harrison, Pleasance Courtyard (Forth), until 27 Aug, 8.30pm, £13-15