Review: The Lunchtime Special – Just the Tonic @ The Tron, Edinburgh

The Lunchtime Special is a great warm-up to your Fringe day, with a chance to see some very good up-and-coming comedians.

Performing stand up to a (hopefully) sober audience at midday is not the easiest gig in town. Midday is 8am in Fringe time.

This group of comedians pull it off well, though, with the likeable and self-deprecating Fern Brady introducing four promising acts.

Brady introduced Kwame Asante, a nice chap who discussed a particularly absurd (is there any other kind?) and amusing case of racial discrimination.

He was followed by Pierre Novellie, who also gave a convincing performance. On straight after Asante, though, perhaps lead to an overload of race-related material.

Brennan Reece, who, despite looking like Dexter Fletcher circa Press Gang, also provided a competent and enjoyable set.

I’m a sucker for musical comedy, so Kate Lucas was the highlight of the show for me.

Her songs were as funny and as crafted as you’d expect from seasoned acts like Mitch Benn and Richard Digance, with rhymes appearing where you wouldn’t normally expect rhymes to appear.

An absolute joy, and deserves more exposure.

Some of the material in today’s show was a little fragmented, which is disappointing considering the length of their spots – but The Lunchtime Special is a chance to be eased into your Fringe day by some comedians who might just make it.

Date of live review: Thursday 8 August 2013

The Lunchtime Special is at Just the Tonic @ The Tron, until 25 August. Details of which acts are appearing each day, along with special offers, are on their Twitter feed.