The Edinburgh Revue

The Edinburgh Revue starts off the new year with a mixed bag of stand up performances, with fresh faces sharing the stage with established talent.

After a confident start from Oli Benton, first-year student Becky Price comes to the stage with an extremely impressive first performance. With crisp, witty anecdotes and a natural ease on the stage, she has the crowd in raptures, foretelling what must be a bright future on the comedy circuit. This high standard is maintained by Hari Sriskantha, but starts to waver slightly in the last set of the section, with Sarah Flocken's highly American humour leaving the crowd somewhat unsatisfied.

The second section kicks off with some bizarre audience participation and intentionally corny jokes courtesy of compère Niall McCamley, before another six comics of varying skill take to the stage. There is a notable performance from Greg Lass, who keeps things close to the bone with a plethora of controversial topics, leaving some of the audience sweating at the collar and others incontrollable with laughter.

Unfortunately, the section ends with the naïve yet cocksure Jamie MacRae, his archetypal fresher material as stale as the Pollock Halls food he describes. After another much needed break, the slightly dilapidated but energetic crowd is treated to the night’s headliner, Liam McDonnell. A comedian perfectly at home in the limelight, he has the crowd in the palm of his hand for the entirety of his set, flitting between the realities of his home life compared to Edinburgh and surreal musings on the intricacies of a 'Hip Hop Hospital' and a 'Nazi synthesizer', propped up with a cheeky London accent. All in all, a great selection of acts, and a show that will no doubt blossom as the year progresses.