Fringe comedy reviews John Luke Roberts Esther Manito Bobby Mair Simon Evans Friend (The One With Gunther) Rob Rouse Wet Ass Rookies Leo Kearse Jody Kamali and Friends
about 4 years in TheScotsman
Cautious experimentation has been the mark of this year's relaxed, reduced Fringe, typified by John-Luke Roberts: It Is Better – Live! (***), a gentle, jazzy companion to the absurdist comic's album in which he disassembles and digresses on the phrase “it is better to have loved and lost than ...”. Neither as high-concept or restrictive as that description suggests, with the inventive Roberts musing philosophically and ludicriously on thwarted romance, a late father and much else besides, it's a patchy but generally absorbing hour.