4.5

	The Stand Comedy Club (venue website) Comedy 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, 24, 25, 26 Aug, 11:59pm (1:30am) Reviewed by Mathilda Gregory

I was listening to a cassette of The Best of Not the Nine O Clock News on the long car ride to Edinburgh, and I was surprised by how many of the jokes were about politics.  We just don't have much of that type of comedy on UK TV anymore.  So I jumped at the chance to review Political Animal, a late night-showcase of political stand up.  Could political comedy be making a comeback?  Could that be the strange silver lining of the Tories being back in power?

4.5

	Gilded Balloon Teviot (venue website) Comedy 6-30 Aug (not 10), 1:15pm (2:15pm) Reviewed by Mathilda Gregory

Helen Keen is just lovely: bumbling and enthusiastic.  This show about the history of space travel feels like a lecture given by a young fogey of a professor... a lecture, yes, but also very funny.  Keen is a decent stand-up, with solid material and jokes twined around her science story.

3.5

	Dance Base - National Centre for Dance (venue website) Dance and Physical Theatre 11 - 22 Aug (not 16), times vary Reviewed by Susannah Radford

Velocity, while active, didn’t quite live up to its name.  Made up of a double bill by Irish Daghdha Dance Company and UK based Pair Dance/Harriet Macauley, it was a show of two halves; the former more of a meandering exploration, the latter an energy eruption.

5

	Gilded Balloon Teviot (venue website) Comedy 6-29 Aug (not 18), 10:50pm (12:00am) Reviewed by Lee Zhuo Zhao

For those of you not familiar with premise of Showstopper, let me bring you quickly up to speed. A writer has an hour to come up with a musical from scratch, to meet a deadline set by an unseen producer. So – armed with suggestions taken from the audience for the theme, starting location, song styles and title –  the writer directs the "showstoppers" as they set about improvising a brand new musical, all done on the night before your very eyes.