In the midst of a comedy festival lacking a sense of place - all these comics striving to be lucratively universal - the Stand has a unique selling point. It's a year-round Edinburgh comedy venue and features local stand-ups. Bob Doolally's Balls is about Scottish fitba': you're wasting your time here unless you know your Ally McLeod from your Ally McCoist.
Doolally is a dissolute pundit and ex-manager touting himself on the cabaret circuit. He peddles gossip about "close pohrsonal friends of mine" in the beautiful game. He careers between the absurdly Anglicised vowels of the venerable pro and the guttural Scots of the beast beneath. How do we get rid of racism in football, he asks. "Kick out the fucking English."
This year's set takes the form of a game show. "Nobody," says the host, "leaves Bob Doolally's Balls empty-handed." Sure enough, there are cans of Tennents and tickets to a local masseur on offer. The quiz that ensues provides the excuse for ever less sophisticated, if bang up-to-date, musings on Scotland's national sport. That it works, despite some flimsy material, is because Doolally's close-to-the-bone character is convincingly maintained. It has nothing to do with awards and everything to do with entertaining the people who live here.
Until August 26. Box office: 0131-558 7272.
