I have to confess, I used to think comedy a truly primitive artform, writes Charlotte Higgins. I remember being dragged to a Simon Munnery show a few years back that was being hailed as fantastically innovative and forward-thinking (hey, it used digital technology). In fact it was dull, and the so-called novel technological stuff deeply old hat - particularly compared with what was happening in the theatre.
This year on the Fringe I've figured out (at last) that one thing that comedy can do brilliantly is to react faster than any other art form to current events (the basic fact of the performer and the writer generally being the same person kind of helps). It's true that one could tire of the innumerable references to July 7 on the circuit this year, but, actually, it's what people want to hear about and some of the material is brilliantly inventive and very insightful.
The flipside is when people go on endlessly about stuff that was in the news six months ago that no one cares about very much any more. The election of the Pope? Jokes about white and black smoke? Sorry, that's so over, Richard Herring and Andrew Maxwell.
