Luke McQueen @ Pleasance Dome

Luke McQueen's return to the Fringe is an audacious bonfire of the vanities, both his own and those of the comedy ecosystem more generally; the gatekeepers, the chummy podcasts, the expensive clowning courses. Directed by Jordan Brookes, the show shares clear DNA with Brookes' own work, playing with what's real and what's not, and interrogating stand-up's promise of warmth and vulnerability.

Leaning into his obnoxious tryhard persona, McQueen plays us an excruciating phone call in which he is rebuffed by Stuart Goldsmith, host of the long-running podcast The Comedian's Comedian ('it's only for people who do great work'). What follows is McQueen's revenge: a staged interview with an unctuous, AI-programmed version of Goldsmith. The real Goldsmith is empathetic, collegiate. McQueen, arrogant and self-serving, is not.

Then the AI worm turns, and McQueen is forced to confess his sins: his toxicity, and his relentless ambition to be on TV. We see clips of him as a much younger man on reality series Coach Trip, and his turn on Embarrassing Bodies. It's writhingly uncomfortable and very, very funny, but it's also rather sad. A still from Coach Trip, of McQueen's younger self being rejected, is allowed to linger; his face unguarded, and his emotions rendered utterly transparent.

The show is extraordinarily inventive and dense, and just one of its achievements is its engagement with AI, as McQueen playfully puts it through its paces. It’s AI as slavish stodge, reinforcing our prejudices; it’s AI as existential threat; even as the new avant-garde.

To invoke the avant-garde in the realm of human endeavour, however, now feels somewhat naive, and sure enough McQueen mocks his own attempts. But in questioning the whole apparatus of his art form, he's surely doing something close.

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Luke McQueen: Comedian's Comedian, Pleasance Dome (Jack Dome), until 24 Aug, 9.40pm, sold out, returns only