Edinbourgh Festival '99: Reviews

COMEDY

COMEDY

Phill Jupitus

Assembly Rooms, Venue 3, 8.30pm (0131-226 2428), to 28 Aug

The status Phill Jupitus accords himself these days - "Johnny-Showbiz- TV-monkey-boy" as he tells us - has its benefits: a probable sell-out for his short run and an audience thoroughly tuned in to the brand of sturdy knockabout humour Jupitus has honed on Never Mind The Buzzcocks.

Astutely, the man responsible for the excellent "Jedi, Steady, Go" cracks just one Phantom Menace gag. He doesn't look very excited about the rest of his new material, though, which continues to debunk high technology and pick holes in Jupitus's favourite sci-fi (Star Trek, 2001: A Space Odyssey). In essence, pedestrian stuff, but it's Jupitus's baroque delivery that carries the evening.

And yet, there's another side to the man who opens the show with "Bestiality", his self-explanatory adaptation of Billy Bragg's hit "Sexuality" - the cerebral GLR wit who, for instance, deconstructs the class politics of Radio 3. This audience hasn't got much patience for these and other high(ish)- brow musings, however. Perhaps the apparent hangover isn't the only thing to blame for Jupitus's slightly weary stage presence.