Edinburgh festival `99 Reviews: Comedy

Will Anderson: Willenium

Gilded Balloon, Venue 139, (0131-226 2151), 10.30pm, to 30 August

BOY, IS Will Anderson the kind of comic who knows he's the kind of comic a girl could take home to her parents. This dashing, fast-thinking young Australian, a newcomer to the fringe, is immaculately turned out in a Prince Charming-black button-up jacket which contrasts nicely with a set of perfect, white teeth that are fixed in an expression of perpetual cheer. The front row was filled with young women on the night I went, trading saucy fantasies with him in response to his earnestly asked question, "What would you do if you only had an hour to live? Would it be love or hate?" This morbid thought runs through a sunshiny hour of material that covers familiar terrain - Dannii Minogue, relationships, men's cooking abilities - shading it with an un-mocking appreciation of life's fleeting possibilities.

The suggestion that we should all be raving about telephones rather than e-mail is typically gentle and pertinent. Smart in both senses, Anderson here proves himself a face to look out for.