Edd Hedges @ Gilded Balloon

It is four years since Edd Hedges won joint-first place at So You Think You're Funny? in 2013. Back at Gilded Balloon for his full debut hour, he strikes a mature figure for his 23 years. So much so that, rather than carefully honing bits and pieces of routines crafted over time and strung into an hour, he eschews the typical first show in favour of something that is more of a risk. Wonderland centres on a story from his recent past. When returning to the sleepy village he grew up in, the family find themselves barricaded into their own home, with only an old oak door protecting them from a serious and violent threat.

Hedges describes himself as a storyteller with confidence, and that does seem his strong suit. It is easy to see his material developing into something like the controlled yarn spinning of the likes of Sarah Kendall. In particular, Hedges explains vulnerabilities well, especially his own. This sense of feeling is in contrast to the characterisation he offers his father – Dad's emotional range is made up of brute force and sweetly-cooked apologies – but the different ways both men love and express fear to one another comes through with considerable depth and complexity.

At least in today's first preview, Wonderland feels a little too raw, the events too near, for Hedges to inject enough distance and humour to overcome the plaintive notes. One set-up revolving around his dad's DIY didn't quite get the pay off tonight that it might later in the run, once the show has bedded down and smoothed out a little.

Hedges does have everything. He has that unidentifiable 'funny bones' quality, he's a little bit of a fuzzypeg, and he could fall back on that natural likability more. Although it is perhaps more impressive that he doesn't, and shows himself willing to take a chance with his first hour.

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Edd Hedges: Wonderland, Gilded Balloon, Teviot (Turret), 2-27 Aug (not 14), 4pm, £7-£9.50