Who Can I See?

There are over forty cabaret show on The Fringe, and most of them are rejecting burlesque. Thanks to the number of jobbing artists knocking around Edinburgh, the line-ups are in a constant state of flux, and nobody knows who they are going to get at most shows. Some good guys - Skinny favourites Itsy put their line-ups on-line - give the audience a chance to find out who is actually performing, but most reviews of mixed bills are a waste of time, since the acts change from night to night.

Equally, variety is not just about style, but quality. A great act can be caught in a crap show. In the spirit of advocacy, this list gives plaudits to the thing most often forgotten in the attempt to get the name of the show out into the public: the acts themselves.

Rufus T Firefly and the Not So Impressive Ben. It's a moot point whether this duo will get to perform that much this year. As promoters of The Bongo Club cabaret, they do have their hands full, yet Rufus was dragged out of the bar for Itsy's late night Voodoo Room special on Saturday, and still delivered. Rufus does musical comedy numbers, bits out of Avenue Q and the dark cabaret song-book, and pauses only to give Ben a hard time.

Kiki Kaboom has been spotted chaving it up at Vive Le Cabaret as a core cast member and at The Bongo. Ready to rumble, dressed in tracksuit and blinged up, Kiki drops the sexy retro nonsense that is now starting to strangle burlesque, offers the audience out for a fight and strips with the glamour of a pissed up chavette. Striptease cliches are given a pugnacious humour, and she sings with Des O'Connor about his Oedipal longings.

3 Gaga Heads. Mad body suit action from Japan. Their flyer boasts manga madness and makes as much sense as their routines: a man turns into Godzilla, funks his entire body to the beat and twists and turns inside neon nylon. Mystifying in all the right ways, they blew up The Bongo between their own show.

Masumi Tipsy is a weird contemporary dancer. The best part of Eat Your Heart Out, she opens with a clockwork routine, then ends it all with a proper choreographed number in elegant red-dress and gas-mask. Not really burlesque - she is indulging no-one - Masumi would be a headline act in the perfect cabaret, since she has skill and imagination. And she keeps her kit on.

Perhaps doing a kid's show made the Lift Operators get over-excited at the chance to swear it up as hosts at The Bongo, but they have the classic comedy pairing: fool and psychopath in an uneasy alliance. The how to speak Australian skit is genius, and marker pens are used to nefarious ends

Tricity Vogue, up from that London, is running her show The Blue Lady Sings plus hosting the Ukelele Cabaret ('you can't be too serious with a ukulele in your hand') plus running around town scattering guest appearances like confetti. Her Blue Lady doesn't show her full strength in short bursts, but if she's in the mood to belt out some numbers just pin your ears back and enjoy.