Here's a novel one. In other art forms, the revival of the classic song, script or score is commonplace. Not so in comedy, an industry that sometimes seems to exist in a permanent present. Comic actor Edward Fidoe is making up the deficit. His small but appealing show, subtitled When Comedians Wore Ties, revisits the stand-up of American raconteurs Bob Newhart and Bill Cosby. Tonight, their routines are compered by the late American icon and master of the self-regarding one-liner, Bob Hope.
This 40-minute show is essentially an act of impersonation. We're not talking Rory Bremner here, but for a pale, redheaded Englishman unmistakably to conjure Bill Cosby is no mean feat. Fidoe has Cosby's emphatic, swooping vowel sounds down pat, and Newhart's smarm too. But his performance doesn't draw attention to its own artistry. The material's the thing, as we're transported back to a turning point in comedy, when Hope's wisecracks ceded to Cosby and Newhart's anecdotage. You can hear these routines' novelty; Newhart and Cosby sound like they're holding their audiences by the hand.
Of course, the humour is gentle - the form had to be invented before it could be subverted. Hope and co practised aspirational comedy; audiences were meant to admire them. Hence the ties. Newhart's shtick involves extrapolating oh-so-droll scenarios from news items. Cosby tells (colourblind) tales from his childhood, of a tonsillectomy, and of a mildly authoritarian dad. I'm sure these were funnier in their creators' hands. But Fidoe's reprisal has no small historical appeal.
· Until August 25. Box office: 0131-556 6550.
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