John Kearns @ Heroes, Monkey Barrel

Overtly aware of the expectation placed on him to deliver, John Kearns seems more than willing to stretch out these often tense moments on stage as the audience waits in bemusement to be entertained. Having previously made history as the only performer to win both Best Newcomer and the main Edinburgh Comedy Award, and in consecutive years, Kearns has a lot working for him, and a lot working against him. Larger audiences still don’t quite seem to ‘get him’; who is this wig-wearing, false teeth-chopping man? Do I know him off the telly? In these opening moments, Kearns thrives.

Much like his previous shows, Don’t Worry They’re Here continues Kearns’ trajectory into mainstream circles. Ever the oddball, Kearns still places himself as the comedy outsider on stage. He is the stranger staring through the window. Sharing with the audience his life – a series of benign and mundane situations that purposely often lead nowhere – his disarming and confusing account of events aid us in understanding very little about the man other than the fact that he is strange and funny, very funny.

He often disregards jokes for monologues and drops routines for something better described as nostalgia-fuelled bedtime stories – like someone trying to describe a dream to you that they couldn’t quite remember. Often Kearns invites comparisons to Eric Morecambe, the subject of a running joke in the show, and an act that Kearns does seem reminiscent of. His rambling stories about creme eggs, massages and swapping lives with a shopkeeper are soaked with nostalgia and melancholy, making Kearns a performer out of time with the current crop of stand-ups at the Fringe, and an act that is all the better for it.

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John Kearns: Don't Worry They're Here, Heroes at Monkey Barrel (Headroom), 4-27 Aug (not 16), 5pm, £7/PWYW