Mark Nelson: Under the Radar

Dumfries-born thirty-something Mark Nelson has a cheeky punter in the front row who disputes that he has lost half a stone since last year, and teases him that he hasn’t progressed out of the White Belly to a bigger venue.

In the scheme of things the White Belly is a pretty decent Fringe venue and Nelson gives a repeat performance here – in other words a really solid, enjoyable show with great gags, but one that doesn’t quite catch fire. Dressed in a suit and tie (he claims that this makes him look more like he has been on a week-long stag do than make him look respectable) Nelson puts in a good day at the office, starting particularly productively with some cracking gags about the possible reasons Pandas were brought to Edinburgh and reinvents stock jokes about Scots people and sunburn, describing his own tanning process as making his skin resemble a 1950s propaganda map of the spread of Communism.

Later he draws on some of his own father’s wit to colour some warm routines and is equally accessible, if less original, with some vignettes about the first six months of his married life. Maybe it is the early evening time slot to blame for the lack of a discernible crescendo, but it’s hard to pick on Nelson and his audience for being relaxed and happy. I may be the only one thinking there’s an extra gear here, and worrying why there wasn’t.