SkinnyFest 3 - Ha Ha Yum

The clue's in the name with this one folks: a delightful 60 minutes of Southern Irish humour polished off with dainty iced fairy cakes or crumbling, still-warm krispie cakes. This is the first time in Edinburgh for stand-up Maeve Higgins, and judging by her studiously hesitant and endearing style it is completely in character for her to have brought along one of her sisters, the cake-baker Lilly. Clad in colourful print dresses and surrounded by 50s memorabilia, the duo base the show around that decade and all that has changed since.

The sister dynamic is clear throughout, and the audience almost expects the other five Higgins girls to tumble onto the stage followed by their Irish mammy brandishing a rolling pin - it's a bit like sitting in a big warm family kitchen in Cobh. Not that the humour is at all cosy or twee. Sailing close to the wind on issues including feminism, racism and homosexuality, Maeve's sweet delivery can hide some controversial observations, while Lilly's innocent interruptions provide the perfect foil. Ha Ha Yum is a delicious fusion of Maeve Binchy and Light Lunch, shot through with a cutting thread of black comedy.

(Laura Esslemont)