John-Luke Roberts: Broken Stand-Up

Broken Stand-Up is every bit as eccentric a proposition as you'd expect from a co-founder of the notorious Alternative Comedy Memorial Society. John-Luke Roberts cares not for conventional subject matter, is prone to shunning punchlines altogether and is evidently more committed to serving his muse than any audience. His ability to do this without coming across as remotely pretentious or confrontational, while also being hysterically funny, marks him as a truly great standup. This free Fringe show may not be to everyone's taste, but the performer can never be accused of failure when offering up something so fully-realised and perfect in its own way.

Roberts's routines are so left-field that each could be construed as a deliberate act of self-sabotage intended to lose our trust and throw the gig off course. A thorough tribute to increasingly forgotten sitcom star Patricia Routledge is a disorientating introduction to his art, while the allegedly ursine comedian's biographical turn concerning his formative years as a bear cub is brilliantly underplayed. Surreal material is never flagged up as such, but instead delivered with a conviction that makes it at once more playful and perplexing. As Roberts ploughs ahead with a series of washing instructions that we may have missed, we've no choice but to succumb to his idiosyncrasies and accept the strange consistency of his self-contained world. Despite being an hour of total nonsense, this somehow ends up registering as one of the most personal shows on at Fringe.