Comedy review: Gary Delaney: Gary in Punderland, Gardyne Theatre, Dundee ***

Even for an accomplished gag merchant like Gary Delaney, the eternal problem for the one-liner comedian is how to escape the formal strictures of their craft, to vary the pace and texture of classic setup and punchline delivery so that even the funniest don't start to sound repetitive.

Performing in Dundee for the first time, delivering more than 250 jokes over a 90-minute set, his chief strategy was to top and tail them with a highly effective meta-commentary on how the audience was receiving his material, noting their preferences for filth and darker stuff in particular. Rewarding them with more if they responded enthusiastically, he played them like a conductor, building to his dirtiest and more daring repertoire.

Breaking down the distance between crowd and performer that exists with stiffer joke machine acts, the 49-year-old is a perennial naughty schoolboy, with even his fogeyish, middle-aged habit of drinking tea on stage, timed to coincide with, and reinforce, extended bouts of laughter. He perpetually scurried back and forth across stage for his mug, rewarding himself as if he was illicitly necking cheap cider.

Though never as shameless a crowd-pleasing act as someone like Jason Byrne, for whom every show is the “maddest” he's ever played, how much Delaney is actually varying his set on any given night is by the by. He appears to take pleasure in highlighting how he learns the nearest awful town nearby to reference, rather than simply mentioning it and currying favour. Elsewhere in his guide to the process, he offered up a persuasive, working definition of Dad Jokes. His cheeky Amazon reviews and Wikipedia vandalism on PowerPoint aren't the most original, but this additional, visual element adds variety and value to a consistently funny show, by a skilled technician who conveys the joy of creating a finely tuned line.

Comedy review: Gary Delaney, Gardyne Theatre, Dundee