Toe-curling in-your-face smut

Returning to stand-up after nearly a decade, Sean Hughes is refreshed and reinvigorated. Or ruder and more rebellious, depending on how you look at it.

Still a 'lad' at 41, Hughes knows the joke's on him. After all, he's trying to coax 25-year-olds into bed at the home where he lives alone with his dogs and snorts the fumes from Tic Tac boxes for fun.

Even the shaven-headed Glaswegians next to me are blushing - Hughes doesn't do over-egged Jimmy Carr-style innuendo; he does toe-curling in-your-face smut - but you can't help but be seduced by his self-deprecating 'it's not me it's the Tourette's' banter.

Occasionally, ideas don't gel - a punchline would have worked better than an uncomfortably earnest Waterboys singalong at the end. But like fellow Fringe returner Frank Skinner, Hughes proves a good show doesn't need to be kitschy or oddball to cut it. Razor-sharp delivery, audience rapport by the shedload and an eye for what's topical will do just fine.

Until Sun (not Thurs), Gilded Balloon Teviot, 8.30pm, £14.

Sean Hughes
Gilded Balloon Teviot, Edinburgh Fringe