When Howard Read first introduced Little Howard, his animated six-year-old alter ego, it was in a sketch crying out to be developed into a full-length show. Here is that show - although it still feels like 40 minutes of material stretched across the full Edinburgh hour. But Read is definitely on to something. With Little Howard, and his new sidekick Haitchbot-2000 ("he's a robot - from the future!"), we're in the realm of digital interactive stand-up. We can heckle fiction, and fiction can answer back.
This year's outing dramatises Big Howard's anxiety that his scratchily drawn, carrot-topped cartoon is funnier than he is. Sure enough, Little Howard's "standing-up comedy" is as droll as ever. "Boys have willies. Girls don't have willies. What's that all about?" With a stroke, the laptop scamp lays observational comedy bare. No wonder he's being headhunted by TV.
Here is Little Howard's news, live from Plasticine. Or is it Palestine? There he is in conference with his manager, best wishes from Dangermouse pinned to the wall. When the two Howards and the rest of the animated cast bounce off one another, this show is a marvel. Part of the joy is the effort Read makes to persuade us the interaction is spontaneous - witness Little Howard's faltering efforts on the ukulele. There are less engaging moments, often when all we're watching is cartoons on a screen. And the insistently ironic air to proceedings threatens to obscure Little Howard's gentler charms. But the raw material's here: Read can go back to his drawing board with confidence.
· Until August 25. Box office: 0131-556 6550.
