Phil Nichol: A Deadpan Poet Sings Quiet Songs Quietly

Phil Nichol’s latest Fringe offering is anything but quiet, his deranged mixture of quickfire puns and soft songs leaving some members of the audience in hysterics. An established figure in Edinburgh after his 2006 if.comeddie win, Nichol has all but perfected the clownish persona that underpins his routine, with his crazy eyes and veins pressing out of his forehead. Thanks in part to a competent two-man band, Nichol's songs form the highlight of this show, with his mischievous lyrics accompanied by genuinely tuneful melodies.

Yet the rest of the show is handicapped by Nichol's overly simplistic, faintly chauvinistic gags. The 'my-mother-sleeps-around-and-so-did-my-wife' jokes delivered at machine-gun speed are hard to register, and fail to tempt most of the audience into anything more than a snigger. You might leave this show wondering if you missed the climax – or if there just wasn’t one.