Edinburgh Fringe comedy reviews: Geoffrey Asmus | Kate Hammer | Maia Tassalini | Gareth Gwynn

Geoffrey Asmus: Patriautism ★★★★

Monkey Barrel Comedy (Monkey Barrel 4) (Venue 515) until 30 August

Religion, history, geopolitics, abortion, paedophilia, neurodiversity and more toxic masculinity than the manosphere can contain … Geoffrey Asmus pummels at hot button topics with such irreverent and profane glee that it's like seeing an ennobled primate among infinite, lesser monkeys, sat at his typewriter producing, well, if not Hamlet, then Shakespeare's dirtiest jokes to have endured.

This early in his Fringe run, still gauging European cultural resonances and sensitivities, there's appeal too in seeing the Minnesota-born, New York-based stand-up simply flinging everything at the wall to see what sticks, often with a belligerent baring of his teeth at the crowd when one slides away, his aggrieved reaction funnier than the line.

And Asmus is all about finding and transgressing the line. At heart, you sense a man of culture, education and broad-mindedness. However, his mischievous reflexes and ferociously right-wing family afford him licence to abuse his better instincts in a constant battle between the good and evil angels of his intellect. There's no opinion or right-minded orthodoxy that he won't sacrifice for the joke. He'll be liberal and conservative in the same breath, a thrusting alpha and a pathetic cuck, higher status or pitifully beneath his audience, though he tends to ultimately characterise them as potential school shooters.

His two-facedness serves him well, keeps him surprising, up to the extent that you always know he's going to say something outrageous. But his act wouldn't truly work if it was completely amoral, or at least not the feign of such. In the breadth of say, his political and religious targets there's more than sacrilegious posturing for the sake of it. There's thinly disguised irritation with intolerance, of wilful ignorance.

However, you'll be laughing so hard at his Anne Frank whimsy and a child porn routine that blossoms into something approaching high art that you won't care. Jay Richardson

Kate Hammer: Government Approved Comedian ★★★

Studio at Monkey Barrel (Venue 80) until 30 August

To be granted a global talent visa to live and work in Scotland, thirtysomething Canadian Kate Hammer had to convince the English Arts Council that, as a comedian, she possesses “essential” skills.

In this high-energy debut, she runs us through the process of proving her worth (which included providing ten pieces of evidence, three letters of recommendation from very important people and £5,000). She peppers the journey with colourfully bawdy titbits about her sexuality, growing up on an Ontario goat farm and being the sort of woman who’s always desperate to let people know she can do the splits.

Hammer subverts the “sad bit 15 minutes towards the end” formula with a daft Love Actually confession, before shifting the energy with a metaphor about cycling that doesn’t entirely earn its place - even if we get what she’s communicating. It’s a small quibble, though: she’s got enough wordplay, physicality, craft and – crucially - likeability, to take charge of her happy audience.

Hammer is in possession of the kind of sparkling charisma, quick wit and stage presence that’ll take her far, and you can easily see her becoming a familiar face on telly in the not-too-distant future. Ashley Davies

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Maia Tassalini: I Was 22 and Stunning ★★★

Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) until 30 August

In this winningly upbeat Fringe debut, the damaged but vivacious Maia Tassalini hitches her story to that of her hero, internationally traduced former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

The product of a one night stand between a disinterested Italian father, whose family of models could never stop themselves sniping about her weight, and a narcissistic mother whose idea of quality time was dragging the teenage Tassalini from gay wedding to gay wedding, it took an ageing drag queen to note the physical similarity between her and Bill Clinton's partner in adultery.

Predictably exploring slut shaming and body image, Tassalini nevertheless offers a more nuanced, thoughtful assessment of how Lewinsky was failed than the comic's overstuffed religious shrine to her icon implies. Meanwhile, she rails against the way society has, in turn, punished her for not conforming to impossible standards, forcing her to develop a personality instead.

Breezily conversational, proffering her pain but wearing it lightly on her sleeve, Tassalini is good, gossipy company. The Lewinsky parallels never feel more than theatrical conceit. Yet she playfully acknowledges them as such, leaving the often smart insight of her social commentary and her natural, endearing delivery to do the storytelling's heavy lifting. Jay Richardson

Gareth Gwynn: Cyril ★★★

Gilded Balloon Patter House (Venue 24) until 31 August

Gareth Gwynn's solo Fringe debut and return to stand-up after two decades was compelled by an intriguing bit of family history. When his father died, the Welsh comedy writer was guilt-tripped by his uncles into following in his footsteps, researching his great-grandfather Cyril Gwynn, an early twentieth century farmer who also built a reputation as a local poet of renown, before then performing his verse.

A better wordsmith than ploughman and a better fighter than both, Cyril was, in his great-grandson's convincing portrait, a belligerent son of the soil who had scrapes around the globe but was happiest in his native Gower Peninsula. Gwynn makes much of the fact that rural Cyril would have disliked Gareth's condescending city ways. But the unexpected arrival in the tale of Randolph Churchill, dissolute son of Winston, bizarrely helps draw them closer.

Like the unassuming farmer, Gwynn is not a polished performer, initially, nervily, rushing through his account. But he soon enough settles into it and it's a gentle charmer, in no small measure thanks to snatches of Cyril's poems that he shares, still amusing after a century.

With Gwynn a Radio 4 comedy veteran, specialising in archives, Cyril already feels destined for further appreciation on the airwaves. Jay Richardson

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