Emo Philips
Emo Philips Sean Smith/Guardian

Fans of Saturday Night Live will remember Emo Philips as the wiry, droopy-haired stand-up with the swooping, whiny voice and dysfunctional persona. Visitors to Edinburgh 2001 are invited to meet the fuller-figured, silver-cropped stand-up with the swooping, whiny voice and - you guessed it - dysfunctional persona.

Rumours of Philips's reinvention have been greatly exaggerated. You won't find a dizzier gags-per-minute ratio on the fringe this year: Philips's 45-minute routine piles 'em high. The lack of any binding motif allows the attention to wander sometimes, but his jokes are more perfectly constructed, and his personality more compelling, than anyone else's.

His comic method is to subvert everyday scenarios with the judiciously timed release of new information. Discussing a camping trip that he undertook, Emo asks, "What are those things that stick to you?" He answers himself: "Allegations of sexual molestation." The few recurring subjects include his ex-wife ("Who shall remain nameless - if I'm ever left alone by her tomb with a sandblaster") and his tortured childhood. He advises parents not to smack kids, but to use psychology: "A floating luminescent Christ head usually freaks them out."

If anything, the overgrown remedial child routine is more disquieting now than when Philips looked the part. But his comic fusillade is so irresistible, I could almost believe that women making love really do scream "Emo!" at their partners in the hours after they have left his show.

Until August 27. Box office: 0131-556 6550.

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