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	Pleasance Courtyard (venue website) Comedy 1-13, 15-27 Aug, 5:45pm-6:45pm
Recommended for age 12+ only.

Four-man comedy sketch troupes are a dime a dozen at Fringe time… but there’s something almost priceless about the Beta Males.  It’s not just that their material’s funny and zippy; what sets them apart is their ability to conjure crazily twisted, oddly credible worlds, and to spin their antics together in a sparkling narrative strand.

We’ve five-starred their Edinburgh productions for two successive years, and our comedy editor Craig Thomson gave 2011’s Train Job an appropriately first-class review.  It was almost cinematic, he wrote, in its inexorable storytelling – a comedy thriller which left its audience electrified.  The Space Race is a whole new show, but there’s a reassuring familiarity to its fast-paced theme; this time, rather than being trapped on a speeding locomotive, we’ll discover the untold history of Britain’s quest for the stars.

Happily, though, there’s nothing rushed about the Beta Males’ approach to Edinburgh; they’ve been previewing The Space Race for months now, with promising reviews from early appearances in Brighton and London.  And, just out, this entertaining YouTube video gives a sense of what to expect from our dashing pioneers.  They may be called The Beta Males, but they’re the alpha and the omega of Fringe sketch acts; we’ve strong hopes for another soaraway success this year.