Lewis Schaffer Is Better Than You

Lewis Schaffer's shows tend to embrace one of two extremes, he reminds you during this perfunctory, 40-minute set. But in truth, this was the lesser-known third outcome, a rather middling three-star performance.

With a singular, cult-like status at the Fringe, where his burgeoning following is predicated on his lack of success, the presence of Stewart Lee in the crowd seems to genuinely destabilise the London-based New Yorker – though not before he beautifully clarifies his own standing on the circuit: not alternative but “failed mainstream”.

Newly eschewing hair dye and accepting his greying temples, he's typically self-lacerating about the implications of such honesty for his sex life. But as his title suggests, he's also too good for the audience he attracts, the sort of “shit” that takes in a free show. A self-loathing, middle-aged Jew, he adopts a shifting status in relation to those watching him, alternately criticising and flirting aggressively with a young woman in the front row, all the while building himself up to lofty heights and cutting himself down.

He's got some fine, surprising one-liners that ostensibly push the boundaries of political correctness. Yet there's an old-fashioned touch of the showbusiness lag to the delivery, making the jokes sound much practised and neutering them of some of their impact. For anyone who's never seen him despair in a basement, Schaffer remains a festival must-see. But if you're more familiar with his shtick, you'll always have to accept that some shows he's really firing on it, others not so much.