Like Lucy Porter, Shappi Khorsandi is aware that a cute girl with a beaming smile can get away with saying almost anything. She suggests, for instance, that "al-Qaida has infiltrated the Samaritans", talking to the suicidal and persuading them to carry a package or two when they die. She points out that the difference between Iran, where her family come from, and Iraq is that "Iran has the weapons of mass destruction". She tells us that the 1979 revolution in Iran was a "popular people's revolution", until "the Islamists hijacked it. They love a good hijacking."
If only more of her show, Asylum Speaker, was this biting. Too often, Khorsandi is content to bubble ditzily about the stage, describing herself as "quite Blue Peter" and giggling about dresses from Top Shop. Her set is packed with engrossing material, not least the story of her family's emigration, and the time the Ayatollah Khomeini ordered that her father, a satirist, be killed. She's also brave enough to relay the complex history of Iran without worrying too much about making us laugh, trusting that her translations of peculiar Persian phrases provide humour enough. What she hasn't yet managed, however, is to differentiate fully between geniality and girlishness. Until she does, it's hard not to feel that a winningly mature stand-up is selling herself slightly short.
· Until August 28. Box office: 0131-556 6550.
