The Wow Show

REVIEWS

Assembly Rooms (venue 3), 54 George St (0131-226 2428), 7.30pm; to 2 Sept (not 31 Aug)

Steven Frost and his rollicking Wow Show have long since become practised in the art of making a virtue out of a shambles, and this year's deranged offering is no different. Traditional fringe variety, laced with a heavy shot of self-mockery, leaping lunacy and finger-tip audience control, comes with no bigger wink and a nudge than this. The string of appalling gags, hammy skits and Marx Brothers clowning fly by with such speed and energy, you end up forgiving them the most grating of moments. And there are plenty of clever constructs to boot, like the hopeless TV hypnotist ("When you wake up you will think that you're asleep... Wake up!"). Frost's Whose Line... forays apart, the foursome are proud of their acting pedigree - London's Burning, Joking Apart, you name it - and they don't care who knows it. These are, thankfully, the men who know no better. If they don't fluff their lines, demand a refund.

Mark Wareham