Jo Brand used to be a stand-up of distinction: a no-nonsense, man-hating "alternative" comedian. This is her first Edinburgh run since the 1990s; in the interim, she has had two children and embraced middle age. So this is a Jo Brand with an evolved, more sophisticated take on the world, right?
Well, not exactly. In fact, she is still peddling the same old shtick. There are choice gynaecological one-liners: she wonders if Fanny Burney is a medical term for cystitis. There are jokes about her own weight: when friends ask the pregnant Brand, "So you'll be eating for two now?" she replies, "Fuck off - I'm not cutting down."
If this set is to be credited, motherhood has merely provided more genital and scatological source material. There is an extended riff, too, on the cap method of contraception and the remarkable dimensions of Brand's "velvet Tardis". Which is funny enough, but feels like a trip up a very familiar comic alleyway.
Perhaps the problem is that her effortlessness can feel like diffidence. Much of the material is tired - all that chat about what "blokes" do. Maybe Brand feels obliged to live up to her feminist reputation, despite the fact that she is smart enough to realise all this boy-girl stereotyping is tosh. There are flashes of a more engaging world view, particularly when she references the poet Jenny Joseph on ageing gracelessly. More from the heart please - and less from below the belt.
· Until August 25. Box office: 0131-226 2428.
