Fred MacAulay: 25 Fringes

Comedian, broadcaster and general raconteur Fred MacAulay knows his audience so well it often feels like he’s playing a room filled with family and friends. He delivers demographic-specific comedy with unerring accuracy; machine-tooled to be middle class, middlebrow and middle of the road.

The former accountant has appeared at a remarkable 25 consecutive Edinburgh Fringes – a quarter century run that has honed his delivery to the point where it seems effortless. He may be coasting, but at least he’s coasting with style.

He’s pleasingly self-aware throughout, bidding "the middle classes" a good evening near the start and making several allusions to the average age of his typical paying punter being somewhere north of 60.

The topics follow suit; golf, cruises and the Edinburgh trams are all present and correct, as are tales from his day job with the BBC. There’s some gentle political satire as he takes the mickey out of Scotland’s political leaders, without ever showing any bite on the subject of independence.

Yet there are moments when he comes close to breaking away from the safe, cozy material and threatens to bare his teeth. He impressively manages to drop the c-bomb without a murmur of disapproval from any of the Morningside ladies present. A wider recurring theme looking at the use of language is astute as well as funny.

Ultimately though, MacAulay is a consumate crowd-pleaser – as long as the crowd in question all look and sound like him.