Dominic Holland's insecure charm

By BBC News Online's Festival correspondent Matt Grant

Dominic Holland
At the Pleasance (until 30 August)

Dominic Holland is like an old school friend who you bump into on a train. He appears slightly nervous at first, but soon relaxes and keeps you laughing for more than an hour as he brings you up-to-date on his life.

His material is nothing staggering, or even new - he has used up most of it on television slots before now, though he claims he wrote the show for the Fringe.

But in his asides about men going to DIY stores or couples watching films together - "What else has he been in," the wife keeps asking until the husband demands a divorce - he exposes a nerve and gives it a resounding whack. Throughout the audience, Holland has people turning to each other and saying, 'You do that.'

Dominic Holland: Comedy of banalities

You get the impression almost everything Holland says about his life on stage is actually true. He has no comic persona or set of characters, relying solely on his natural charm.

The most shocking revelation is that he has being doing warm-up routines for the ITV debate programme Thursday Night Live. He gives a vivid account of himself dying slowly before an audience of paedophiles and their victims.

His main obsession is looks and the way our appearance affects our lives. By his own account, he is short with black, uncontrollable hair, glasses and a nose too weak to keep them in front of his eyes. This leads him to his other theme: insecurity and people's endless and hopeless attempt to escape it.

Holland compares the Edinburgh Fringe to the Olympic Games, the only difference is that at the Fringe contestants openly admit to taking performance-enhancing drugs.

While he might give the impression of not being in the race at all, he will be up with the front-runners for a long time to come.