Julian Clary @ Assembly Rooms

Julian Clary is back at the Edinburgh Fringe for the first time in 17 years and this time, he is fully dilated; open wide and baring all. The 'renowned homosexual' arrives onstage to his usual rapturous applause and with his usual "oh stop, I’ll peak too early", and it could be the 80s, 90s, noughties, or now, so at ease he is in our presence, and so glad we are to see him. He deigns to be himself in this hour, as that seems to be all anyone wants these days – authenticity, integrity, no more hiding behind a stage persona – except, hasn’t Clary been himself all along? It begs the question then, really... what is left for Clary to bare?

So, on he goes, as he always has: the crude, smutty, in-your-face innuendoes; the exceptional crowd work; the outrageous name dropping; a facetious jingle or three, delivered in his lilting, sing-song voice which still manages, even after all these years, to both soften and worsen the blow of an eye-watering gag. And there are plenty of gags – this is JC after all. But the show does take on some retrospection, a rarity for Clary. Mostly through a dizzying highlights reel of Clary’s glistening career – in the end not dampened, but bolstered, by the Norman Lamont Red Box incident – as he recounts Fanny the Wonderdog’s uncanny impressions, or working the West End with Lily Savage.

These retellings are interspersed with rare and devastating reflections on a life and career that, whilst, from the outside was rocket launching to success, was imploding. Clary manages his feat of showing us a side to him that we might have only before suspected was there, but in doing so – in a sold-out room seventeen years down the line – proves that yes, sometimes "life’s a cunt", but there’s still plenty more fun to be had.

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Julian Clary: Fully Dilated, Assembly Rooms (Music Hall), until 23 Aug, 5.30pm, £18.50-£21.50