Dane Baptiste: G.O.D. (Gold. Oil. Drugs)

Dane Baptiste doesn't claim to have all the answers, but in G.O.D (an urban manifesto arriving a tad late for the year's elections) belly laughs and epiphanies abound, so we'll have to make do with that instead.

Few comics on the circuit blend the cerebral and the crude as seamlessly as Baptiste, and he's returned to the Fringe on blistering form. Grappling with the eponymous commodities as reference points, he uses his hour to deconstruct the base desires at the heart of modern life. It's very much an encompassing theme, with the show named accordingly, rather than a hurriedly devised title for the brochure deadline in May, followed by a show unrelated to it.

His dissection of TLC's No Scrubs is a fantastic demonstration of his pragmatic powers, and he always tempers the bravado for which he's known with a self-effacing wink, nod, or killer line. There's a lot of surface-level soul searching, and he takes the time for some introspection as he subjects the religious overtones of consumer society to inquisition. It's wonderfully laid-back satire.

There's an admirable depth to what he's trying to achieve here, but it needn't be taken sincerely to be enjoyed. It's a sermon that won't send you to sleep, delivered by a man who's made it his mission to gently prod at the flawed divinity of social order. Not that he has a God complex or anything.