Time: 6.15pm
Capacity: 400? All full.
The theme: "Punslinger" is the title of this year's show, and it neatly describes Vine's reputation as a rapid-fire groan-merchant. "Black holes," for instance. "I don't know what people see in them." What gets neglected beneath the barrage of gags, however, is what a splendidly silly physical comedian Vine also is - a kind of children's entertainer for grown-ups who struts and twitches all over the stage while periodically diving into his prop bag to pull out yet another absurdly simple joke. "Imagine if I did this for an hour," he grimaces after 10 minutes. "I'm going to."
High point: Why is it that Vine is never seriously suggested as an if.comedy contender? His act may not contain even a hint of edginess or social commentary, and yet it is skillfully delivered, hugely popular, continuously funny and utterly unique. After naming him best newcomer on the Fringe 13 years ago, it seems as if the comedy world has grown so accustomed to his face that it has begun to resemble wallpaper. Memorising this gargantuan set alone deserves recognition of some kind, for heaven's sake! And even now his imagination is still fertile enough to conjure up a ventriloquism routine that has hundreds of people laughing hysterically for more than a minute without him uttering a single word. Do the Fringe judges see this sort of thing every day? Because I don't.
Weak spot: The performance I saw was far from flawless. Indeed, by Vine's ambitious standards there were quite a few serious cock-ups with misdelivered, and thereby spoilt, gags. Unforgivably, he even stopped the silliness momentarily to upbraid himself when a favourite bit about raffle tickets ran aground. Vine's credit with his audience was good enough for him to escape with only cuts and bruises, but such avoidable accidents did periodically slow the momentum of the whole show.
Audience participation: Just panting exhaustedly to keep up, for the most part. Although he did also have us chucking a toy ewe around in the air while trying to prevent it from touching the floor. I'll let you puzzle out the punchline on that one.
Comic equation: Tommy Cooper + Bruce Forsyth + Vic Reeves + the square root of Michael Barrymore
Mark out of 10: 8
Put this on your poster: Puns for all the family!
