EDINBURGH COMEDY

Pleasance - Brendon Burns
****
Udderbelly - Jim Jeffries
****

Well, Rolf Harris they ain't. Whether it is the convict genes biting back or just plain colonial cussedness, Australia seems intent on exporting brutally abrasive stand-ups to the mother country. These two shows both push the very frontiers of taste, but in an intelligently ugly way. One can admire them while simultaneously finding them repugnant.

Fully paid-up Fringe fixture Brendon Burns arrives with added strongman-style facial hair. Given that his poster features him blacked up as a Zulu, it is hard for him to be any more offensive in the flesh. In fact a lot of his show is relatively tame, laying into familiar targets, ranging from "bendy, rag-headed ponce" Russell Brand to Hitler to reality TV.

This is a gig that somersaults from generic gagsmithery to moments of talk-of-the-fest genius. Burns is fast-paced and furious, barking at the audience like a rabid dog while unpicking the sheer absurdity of political correctness. Almost worth a round-trip to Scotland in its own right.

Anyone who likes Burns's macho form of anti-machismo will also enjoy Jim Jeffries's bleak barbs about paedophilia, cancer and abortion. These taboos jostle uncomfortably in a challenging set that takes no prisoners, particularly when Jeffries recalls the dysfunctional childhood that surely fuels his adult waywardness.

The show climaxes in a comic dissection of a recent incident in which he was attacked onstage. "I blocked the first punch with my face," deadpans the ex-care worker with a rare glimmer of charm. The accompanying footage has a bestial quality that makes it compelling viewing, but I cannot see Jeffries - or Burns - ever replacing Rolf on Animal Hospital.

• Until 26 & 27 August (www.edfringe.com).