A Light Snack For A Monday

So, it's festival time in Edinburgh. Yes, if you live there, that means everything just became a lot more expensive, the Royal Mile just became even less practical than usual and all the joke shops have sold out of white face paint, as every single mime in Europe dashes out of Waverley in complete and utter silence. However, if you don't, it's bloody brilliant. In fact, a lot of people will only ever know Edinburgh from the festival in the summer ("Right, we have to make a choice - it's a play about rape in the Balkans, or it's Michael McIntyre. No, I can't face McIntyre either.") or extreme alcoholism in extreme cold for Hogmanay. I know which I prefer.

Stand-up has long been a bit of an obsession of mine - it's still one of the best (if not the only) ways of having a great night out in London for less than a tenner - so I thought I'd celebrate the Festival with a quick and fairly lazy post (lazy in that I'm not even going to review them - I'm just showing you videos), showcasing three of the best (in my extremely humble opinion) stand-ups that this year's Fringe has to offer. And so, in no particular order.

First up, Dan Antopolski. The more accessible Daniel Kitson, he's extremely sharp and extremely funny. And look, he makes jokes about sandwiches! You can catch Dan for the next three weeks at the Pleasance Dome.

Secondly, the quite lovely Laura Solon, the last ever winner of the Perrier, back in 2005. If you've seen Laura, it was probably in the slightly disappointing Laura, Ben & Him on ITV2, the highly questionable Ruddy Hell, It's Harry & Paul, or the execrable Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder - but be fair, a girl's got to pay the mortgage. Solon is first and foremost an achingly original character comic of the highest, highest order - she's good on the radio, but live is where she really comes into her own. You can catch her at the Assembly Rooms on George Street.

Finally, the magnificent Rhod Gilbert - nominated for last year's If.comedy (the Perrier-replacement), Gilbert is back with the fabulously monikered, "Rhod Gilbert And The Cat That Looked Like Nicholas Lyndhurst", which you can catch at the Pleasance Courtyard. There are a couple of Rhod clips here for you - the second one, at the Royal Variety Performance, is quite long, but worth the effort for the 'Could you be in the Navy?' routine alone.

And that's that. If you're up in Edinburgh over the next month then we might just bump into each other, and I'll buy you a beer at the Pleasance - I'm trying to sort my diary out today. Either way, let me know how you get on, and if there are any shows I need to check out when they come back down to London.

Happy Monday!