Comedy review: James Adomian: Lacking in Character

Edinburgh Festival Fringe: A measure of James Adomian's entertaining company is that despite barely tweaking his US material, with routines about such niche figures to British ears as '¨fellow comic Andy Kindler and wrestler-turned-conspiracy theorist Jesse Ventura, you engage with him regardless.

Gilded Balloon (Venue 14)

***

A gifted character actor and impressionist, in addition to Ventura he also dusts off his turns as Bernie Saunders and Paul Giamatti in a freewheeling, slightly overlong hour of unrelated but smoothly delivered material. Mixing the observational and the personal, several of the set-ups, such as Hollywood bad guys having English accents aren’t overburdened with originality.

Against that, the precision behind his observation of, say, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen lifts more workaday routines. He also vividly brings to life such anecdotes as being the sole bus passenger when a driver throws road safety to the wind, and of being an American abroad, uniting Scandinavians in disdain for his country.

As a gay man, he has great fun with the daft homosexual euphemisms he suggests proliferate in Humphrey Bogart movies. And there’s a winning depiction of his self-regarding president, revelling in his own fatty flesh.

Until 27 August. Today 9:15pm.