Never was the phrase Not Suitable for Children more appropriate. Jeremy Lion is the dipsomaniac kiddies' entertainer whose Happy Christmas show made waves (of Special Brew) at Edinburgh last year. "Lion! Lion! Lion!" he barks, red nose to nose with the evening's nominated birthday boy. This is celebration as child abuse. But it's not so much Lion's alcoholism that amuses - although performer Justin Edwards pulls off some impressive boozing feats. Far funnier are his hard-line attempts to educate his little charges as well as entertain them. Out of his giant birthday cake, for example, pops a fire-eyed monster-bat raving about the threat of tooth decay.
Last year's format is closely followed, down to the nursery-rhyme medley that keyboard player Leslie (George Cockerill) hijacks with Beatles tunes. ("Pop goes the weasel real nowhere man," and so on). Sometimes Lion's can't-be-arsed attitude lets Edwards (and co-writer James Eldred) get away with laziness too. Their slide-show history of birthdays is pretty shabby. Far more frequently, Lion's inappropriateness is hideously funny. As he lets slip dark facts from his past or sings Sondheim while dressing up as Uncle Bungle the clown, it's delicious to imagine the tots' horror at Edwards' growling, flatulent alter ego. And the brilliantly made props - not least Mr Octopus Rhyme, the mollusc coast guard - are a show unto themselves.
· Until August 30. Box office: 0131-556 6550.
