REVIEWS

NOTHING VENTURED

Pleasance (venue 33), 60 The Pleasance (0131-556 6550), 8.45pm; to 30 Aug

This one's called "30th Appearance". It's dedicated to Roger McGough and should be read in a clipped Scouser accent, with appropriate pauses for laughter (student specs optional)... It's your 30th appearance at the fringe. You come on stage. You say we're going on a stroll. Along the towpath of life. You have us worried for a second, but it's fine. You tell us what it is like to be a kid. We hear about uncles and aunties, double-deckers and death. You introduce pain like a razor-blade into a packet of lemon sherbet. If only you made no apologies. But you look awkward, laugh it all off. You come from that era where anything went. Yet you stayed. Thirty years on the towpath of life. Isn't it time you took the plunge?