Political Animal

Given the Fringe occurs when the UK's political houses are in recess, comics at The Stand's late night Political Animal wouldn't usually have such a wealth of contentious and fundamental material to feed it's comic machine in the late hours of a Fringe day. But this is August 2011: there is anarchy in the streets, unfathomable sovereign debt and the usual raft of risible politicians at Holyrood. If the weight of the world is oppressive and you’re struggling to understand what is actually going on, let alone form your own opinion, Andy Zaltzman and his variable line up will lend an understanding, light up a new perspective and make you laugh about things that may have previously impassioned you, bored you or that you didn’t even know about.

Though the line up changes, the quality is consistent and if a comic only makes tenuous links to political themes they’ll explicitly admit their failure and laugh at themselves. It’s a savvy show for even a tired mind, and given MPs have been summoned from their summer holidays to return to Westminster, there has never been a more appropriate and necessary time to listen and watch political stand up at the Fringe.