Fringe comedy reviews: Celia Pacquola: Gift Horse | Dan Rath: Help Me Please | Yvette Segan: Guy's Girl + more

Celia Pacquola: Gift Horse ★★★★

Assembly Roxy (Venue 139) until 14 August

At a point in her life when Celia Pacquola was settling into motherhood, unlikely to ever perform at the Edinburgh Fringe again, Gift Horse has become the gift that keeps on giving, scooping her the top comedy award in her native Australia, international tour dates and a career shot in the arm. Ostensibly from a lack of awareness and imagination, her partner's inexplicable birthday gift to the land-fond comic of an inflatable kayak, has prompted this wryly observant and shrewd analyst of relationships to a wonderfully thorough exploration of the meaning of presents and what they say about our synergy with our loved ones.

Certainly, Pacquola's enquiries of the audience throws up some similarly misguided purchases, inevitably skewed in favour of women complaining about what their menfolk have got them. Generalised stand-up about CIS male-female differences might not be the most fashionable. But in this particular area, Pacquola is on really solid footing and exploits the opportunity to give full, entertaining vent to her incredulity. This show, she argues persuasively, is a real conversation starter. And really awkward conversations at that. Not least as to why men often consider their partner their best friend while women are much less likely to do so. Pacquola knows her squad, a gal pal for any situation, with her hapless other half barely getting a look-in.

From wittily astute social commentary though, she increasingly hones in on what the kayak symbolised for their relationship specifically, presenting an affecting tale that's organic and cheering and salvages her partner's reputation somewhat. Delivered with a storytelling skill that has you right in the boat with them through every twist and turn in the river, sometimes the best stand-up shows have the simplest, most broadly relatable origins. Jay Richardson

Dan Rath: Help Me Please ★★★★

Cab Vol 1 at Monkey Barrel Comedy (Cabaret Voltaire) (Venue 338) until 30 August

There’s an often-cited convention that an Edinburgh comedy show has to be more than just jokes - with a structure, a narrative arc, a culturally relevant subject and a sad bit roughly 45 minutes in.

I doubt Dan Rath will ever be able to pull off that sort of Edinburgh show. What you get with Rath is an hour of jokes, wild, inventive unpredictable flurries which develop into very funny gags with a momentum and rhythm all of their own.

It’s hard to see where Dan Rath is going next. In fact I’d like to watch two shows in a row, to find out how much his set list is planned and how much of his brilliant material is actually just spouting spontaneously from his highly unusual mind.

Rath has a plethora of neurological issues which have all been medically diagnosed. He doesn’t talk about them so much as show them. His delivery is jerky and explosive, combined with a thousand-yard stare and a repertoire of involuntary tics.

His routines are full of wild imagery and dark subject matter. Whether he’s talking about strapping a watermelon in a car seat or wearing another person’s skin he turns the oddest ideas into massive laughs.

At one point he worries that one side of the audience is laughing more than the other and wonders if we are collectively having a stroke. It’s true, not all over us are laughing at the same time, but his material is so unexpected and weird it makes people explode with laughter at odd moments.

It can be hard to keep up with Rath – and there are a few too many niche Australian references – but his weird, wild, freewheeling style is irresistibly funny. He may not have the classic Edinburgh show essentials, but the hour goes by in a flash. Claire Smith

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Yvette Segan: Guy's Girl ★★★

Gilded Balloon Teviot (Venue 14) until 17 August

Imagine a neurotic, culturally Jewish, sexually uninhibited stand-up from New York with daddy issues and you'd doubtless envisage something similar to Yvette Segan. What might surprise is the sheer bleakness of her routines and the bright-eyed, casually offhand manner in which she delivers them.

At base, hers' is a very dark view of life but one that she's happy enough to dwell in. After some gently unhurried crowd work, she launches straight into a wince-inducing birth control gag and appeals for sisterly solidarity for her actions. Dating her boyfriend for six months, they're still at the experimental stage, with her blasé about the kinky sex but holding back on emotions, wary of reaching for anything so dangerous as loving connection. She can doubtless attribute this to her relationship with her parents, with her family essentially there for her, just reticent to acknowledge it.

Floating controversial theories, such as the correlation between history's greatest monsters and their deformed physiognimy, Segan suggests a plan to eradicate some of the boldest architects of eugenics with something that sounds a lot like eugenics. She also has a line about a recent New York shooting, which, while callously hilarious, is simply an extreme solution to a real wider problem. Cynical but not jaded, she's depravedly droll. Jay Richardson

Guy Branum: Be Fruitful ★★★

Gilded Balloon Teviot (Venue 14) until 31 August

Guy Branum’s not here to do a one-man show, he claims. How self-indulgent it would be to turn sadness into art! This is one of several lies he admits to telling his edge-of-the-seat audience before insisting we’re only allowed to pity him three times during this show.

Never not in command of the room, the American who’s written on shows such as The Mindy Project and cult drama series Hacks, sets out to explore an uncomfortable thesis. What is the point of gay men such as himself when they’re an evolutionary “dead end”? Certainly in popular culture, their characters always seem to die early.

Telling us he is “morbidly obese”, the former lawyer presents a cleverly researched oration – which blends science with a surprising stance on religion – touches upon the evolutionary and eugenical significance of body fat.

And then suddenly it does become a very personal show, and we’re trusted with the candid details of an unorthodox relationship that had a significant impact on his life.

It’s a compelling and illuminating hour that requires audience participation, and though there aren’t as many laughs as you’d hope for in a comedy show, they’re crackers when they do come. Ashley Davies

Stand Up Philosophy ★★★

The Ballroom at Laughing Horse @ The Counting House (Venue 170) until 30 August

This show changes guests with a philosophical bent each day but we always have Alex Farrow, who is what you get if you give Jack Whitehall a degree in philosophy. He is obviously no slouch academically and is a charismatic performer but using “m'man” as a repeated salutation is deeply irritating. Today we have Chelsea Birkby and Vlad Illich taking us through the Philosophy of Objectification with reference to Kant, Camus and a passing mention of the Aberdeen Kiss, followed by Marx, Plato and the problems of filling out an application for a UK passport.

With each guest, Alex comes back onstage to engage in some philosophical discourse, and encourage the audience to ask questions. It makes for an interesting mix, and quite tricky given that few philosophies benefit from being folded into a comic's club set. But it works surprisingly well, although for me the Q&A rather gets in the way and usually ends up with Alex doing his own material. Which is never bad, but just feels a little unfair to the guests. But whether you agree with Hobbes, Kant or Freud, you can always do worse than laugh. Kate Copstick

Get Your Geek On: A Nerdy Comedy Showcase ★★★

Main Cellar at Laughing Horse @ West Nic Records (Venue 442) until 30 August

The Geek comes in many forms and this nerd-friendly show celebrates and welcomes all of them. My knowledge of the world of online gaming, cosplay and even Pokemon is minimal, and so I fail utterly to score on the ongoing interactive competition fun, but somehow that doesn't matter. This is a clever and brilliantly executed format with suitably impressive tech (thank you Ally Haig).

Juliette Burton is an effervescent and sweetly geeky host, addressing us as “my sweethearts” and keeping up a necessarily hectic pace as there is a lot to fit in. Three guest comics share their obsessions – today bees (Rachel Creeger), cult films (Hanna Platt) and disco music (Chaz Redhead) – which makes for a fascinating break from the many worlds of the virtual. Although I do not really understand the lure of the screen as a playground, the sheer enjoyment and enthusiasm that is obvious in the room is infectious and I almost feel moved to download Space Invaders. Juliette, you may have changed my life. If you are a geek, this is the show for you. If you are not, it is a great gateway experience of Geekdom, my sweethearts. Kate Copstick

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