Dr Earnest Parrot Presents Demetri Martin, UdderBelly <!-- none onestar twostar threestar fourstar fivestar -->
One-line wonder
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Your support makes all the difference.Demetri Martin's latest show is a masterclass in how to pace and theme a Fringe comedy show as much as it is a great showcase for cute one-liners and observations. The 33-year-old American comedian won hearts and minds after winning the Perrier Award in 2003 and has performed at every Edinburgh since, earning him a loyal following of fans and fellow comedians.
With Spiral Bound in 2004, Martin took us on a magical journey though his notebook, while this year a "therapy session" designed to make him less detached from the world gives his jokes a home. By contrast, his 2005 show failed to make as much of an impression, and remarks about how nice muffins smell pushed the boundaries of coy to the maximum. Though the framing of the story changes from show to show, Martin's persona remains constant: he's a clever geeky kid at heart and he's cute in both senses. This time, however, he is aware that a latent obsession with being cool is stopping him from living in a moment and sharing those moments with others.
In order to help reconnect himself he charts (with the help of Dr Parrot, his therapist, depicted mostly as a shadow puppet) a map of the part of his brain that is missing. On the "brain nook" map is the Forest of Jokes where pixies (this sounds worse than it actually is, trust me) help him observe that a game of hot potato in poorer countries could easily become a game of "my potato", or that a more appropriate alternative for the overused "lol", laugh out loud, might be "lqtm", "laugh quietly to myself".
This section within a section (the show is broken into five "moments") inevitably contains the most one-liners and is sublime. What makes it all the better is that his gift for quirkiness has other outlets in other sections be they songs, drawings (one depicts an "escalator" and an "escalatee") or projected examples of preposterous palindromes such as: "snub no man nice cinnamon buns".
On this form it would have been tempting to let Martin just roll off his one-liners, either accompanied by his guitar or not, but he made that mistake last year and his return to a concept show is very welcome. Almost inevitably with a show that builds so subtly, there's an ending that doesn't do the rest of the work Martin has done much justice.
Nevertheless, by this time the overall experience has crept up on you and hugged you into submission. The tapestry of well-crafted but lo-fi observations and beguiling one-liners sails far enough away from twee to be largely engrossing and it's easy to see why a number of people, from Microsoft to Steven Spielberg, have been interested in this subtle and skilled comedian.
To 28 August (0870 745 3083)
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