Is it a comedy? Is it cookery? Or not really a satisfying version of either? Broadcaster Hardeep Singh Kohli is the latest celebrity to hit the fringe with something less than a show. Consider this An Audience With... , in which the self-professed "nearly naked chef" chats, tells second-hand jokes and prepares a meal with ingredients brought by the audience.
It's a passably pleasant hour, but inconsequential. There's just enough cookery – he knocks up a chicken and butternut squash vindaloo, with haggis flakes – to interfere with Kohli's comic timing, but not enough to seem much more than a gimmick. It's hardly a demonstration of cookery skill. Far from it: Kohli is wilfully slapdash ("Do we have any double-cream? Or a fire extinguisher?"). It's just something happening in the background to substitute for the lack of structure or purpose.
As a host, Kohli exudes a confidence bordering on arrogance. Witness his glib dismissal of his suspension from The One Show for inappropriate behaviour, or his odd homoerotic overtures to a man called Frank in the front row. The impression is of a man who has wrongly assumed that comedy is as easy as it looks. It isn't, as Kohli proves with some weak observational material, and recycled jokes about racism and homophobia that aren't as provocative as he thinks.
But if the cookery and the comedy are both unexceptional, the company is entertaining enough. Kohli lets us into his world, in which efforts to impress dinner party guests go awry, and one of his many cousins opens Glasgow's first Indian-Hungarian restaurant. This passes the time but – unlike that vindaloo, I suspect – rather lacks flavour.
Until 31 August. Box office: 0131-622 6552.
