Comedy review: Electric Tales, The Stand Edinburgh

LOVE is in the air at Electric Tales, the regular storytelling night in which just about anything goes.

* * *

As the lost and lonely feel the dread of the looming date that celebrates engineered affection, this show offers a degree of respite, with the darker side of love fully explored. The night begins jovially enough with our host and self-confessed vegan knitter Sian Bevan analysing ancient rituals of party etiquette and the lost art of conversation. Later, she will offer prizes to those who can come up with the best spot of origami. It really is that kind of a gig.

But soon enough a pall descends, with the bleakly funny musings of Andrew Learmonth. Convinced as a teenager that he was most definitely gay, he is as surprised as anyone that he could eventually find hetero-happiness and spawn a child. Flirting with the audience’s patience as he spirals towards a stage meltdown, he superbly ends with a twist amid the tale of a murdered Micky Flanagan lookalike.

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We’re back on the love track again with Rebecca Green’s short story of a childhood in charge of an identically-monikered hamster and dog which features a charming if off-kilter aside towards Mary, Mungo and Midge. And then we’re derailed once more with Wild Card Kitty’s vibrant, if baffling, tassel-worrying burlesque.

Donald Nelson comes across as a sensibly attired Rab C with his rather humdrum tale of two ill-fated Glesga lovers, Shuggie and Senga, the enthusiasm of his delivery masking the story’s ordinariness. Love is all around us tonight, but none of it will warm the cockles on a cold February evening.