Markus Birdman: Love, Life & Death

Edinburgh can be a lonely place throughout August. The city changes from the adorable, inviting pleasantville it can be for the other 11 months of the year to become an intense hive of hussle and bussle. It can be alienating. This is where Markus Birdman swoops in with this hug of a show. To set the scene, the promotion of the show involved sending journalists a small care package of drugs. 'Take one every 24 hours at 9.20pm to prevent hardening of hearts,' it reads, and of course wine, arguably the greatest healer of them all.

Birdman does not disappoint in his promise to cure the gloom that ails us all. He packs his show with more affection, positivity and healthiness than you're ever likely to find in any pharmacy. It's thought-provoking, endearing and it tackles some difficult subjects head on and with aplomb. It's like therapy, a day at the spa, a smile from a cute stranger on a Monday morning, a flash of sun through the cloudy greyness, like finding a fiver in your pocket when you're skint, a sunset, a moment of genuine loveliness that is hard to explain and even harder to capture. Fortunately for us, Birdman has captured this superbly. Funnily positive and positively funny.