Theatre reviews: David Trent - Spontaneous Comedian, Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33), Edinburgh

ONE of the more ironically titled festival offerings, this stunning debut marries slick multimedia with the sort of bold, upfront attitude that usually heralds a major new Fringe talent or instinctive fantasist.

ONE of the more ironically titled festival offerings, this stunning debut marries slick multimedia with the sort of bold, upfront attitude that usually heralds a major new Fringe talent or instinctive fantasist.

David Trent – Spontaneous Comedian

Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33)

Rating; ***

David Trent may be both, albeit with a significant dollop of self-abasement undercutting the cocksure bluster. His show features a pulsating soundtrack and rapidly cutting visuals, affording it vital energy throughout, and there’s no hesitation or half-measures in his hypnotic mix of live and captured performance.

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When the schoolteacher opens with a bizarre safety instruction video for children, featuring a woman hurling a melon from a great height, it sets the pattern for a delightfully perverse, mischievous hour in which you have absolutely no idea what’s coming next. This proved too disorienting for a couple of disruptive punters on the night I attended, as he playfully skirted the offensive.

But it’s the many offbeat, risk-taking elements of this production that make it so compelling, such as the sequence dedicated to the inept guitar-swinging skills of At the Drive-In’s Omar Rodríguez-López, or the midwifery skills of Chris Rock taken to ridiculous extremes.

• Until 27 August. Today 10:45pm.