Cariad Lloyd: The Freewheelin’ Cariad Lloyd, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh

The Freewheelin’ Cariad Lloyd

The hit of The Free Fringe and a newcomer nominee for the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award last year, Cariad Lloyd is back with another collection of loopy characters and sparkling one-liners.

Joining her returning characters Cockney Sam, music-hall singer, and child stand-up, Andrew, are new creations Moomin Mama, a Scandinavian detective, Kitty Romford, a Film Noir checkout girl and ‘New Girl’ parody Joey Bechamel.

It’s all endearingly bonkers with some delicious morphing in and out of character and a goofy subplot about being made to adhere to genre rules by the Fringe Police. There are many lovably silly ideas (young Andrew talking to us about Will.i.am Shakespeare, for example) and some peachy lines (“No one can stare out of a window like Sarah Lund” says Moomin Mama wistfully of her colleague) but sometimes Lloyd's “freewheelin’” characters feel like they are cut from the same shrill cloth. A well-researched pop at Zooey Deschanel’s ‘New Girl’ character in particular witters on for ages (admittedly much like the original).

Somewhere between last year’s range and this year’s attention to detail, there lies a perfectly paced and pitched show for Lloyd. With such a learned ear for a gag, it surely won’t be long before she delivers it.

To 26 August, 0131 556 6550