Comedy review: Balamory Doubtfire

Edinburgh Festival Fringe: What's the story? Well, the advanced driving course teaches you that when your car is spinning, drive into the spin.

Laughing Horse @ Finnegan’s Wake (Venue 101)

***

In a room packed with people, at least 25 per cent of whom have alcoholically altered sensitivities and no real idea where they are, ­Martha McBrier drives her delightful, tragi-comic tale of broken hearts and embedded maths, potassium highs and emotional lows into the drunken spin and brings it all under her control. Teacher who falls victim of a school in search of a good Ofsted ­rating, victim of a vicious gang ­mugging who rises to be a Good Samaritan, ­Martha is both and much more. Her shows are very personal affairs, this one more than most. She is a phenomenal comic but this is her in storyteller mode and she makes her audience part of her life for an hour.

She never sacrifices the ­narrative to lever in a ­pointless gag but you will laugh because she can make any story ­funny. That is her gift. You will laugh, you might cry, your blood pressure will rise and your respect for the education department will fall, you will sing and you will be her friend for life.

Until 27 August. Today 5pm.