John Tothill @ Pleasance Courtyard

A Catholic, a monarchist, and a foppish exquisite, John Tothill is a man born at the wrong time. He’s also a primary school teacher. He insists he’s terrible at teaching, but, on the evidence of this mock seminar – he’s probably rather good. The Last Living Libertine (directed by the late, great Adam Brace) is Tothill’s debut show, replete with a delicious persona and a framing conceit that allows for masterly crowd work.

To call what he does crowd work feels rather inadequate – the dynamic is more like flirtatious teasing, which is remarkable given it’s a room full of strangers. Gently chiding, then encouraging (‘and that’s why I push you’ he purrs in satisfied response to one effort from the audience), these interactions reveal impressive speed of thought and powers of improvisation.

Trying vainly to keep his thesis on track (essentially, Martin Luther, Henry VIII and Cromwell: bad; Mary Tudor: good), Tothill’s digressions blossom wildly – from the ‘beautiful, violent man’ at the gym who coerces him into squats (the subsequent fainting fit leads to an intimate knowledge of the smell of Pure Gym floors) to his absolute horror of maths and the vulgar details of biology.

A decadent aristocrat at heart, Tothill mourns the death of pleasure and the ascendancy of the joyless, Puritanical ‘food preppers’. Pockets of fabulousness remain, though, and he has half an eye on some ornamental role deep in the ranks of obscure royalty. He ribs fellow royalist, Gyles Brandreth, but actually, while Brandreth is eminently mockable and middlebrow, you can trace a direct line from his style of gossipy, camp frivolity to Tothill’s more refined act.

Tothill’s show might be more esoteric but it’s absolutely a crowd-pleaser.

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John Tothill: The Last Living Libertine, Pleasance Courtyard (Below), until 27 Aug, 8.30pm, £10-11