Edinburgh Comedy: The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which opened this weekend, is bucking trends. The sun has been shining for once and ticket sales are up by over 20 per cent on the all-time best year of 2007. With around 400 comedians in town, from veterans such as Julian Clary to novices, the competition is fierce.

American Janeane Garofalo’s run is selling out thanks to her appearances in hit sitcoms such as The Larry Sanders Show rather than her recent performance at the Latitude Festival, where she left after 10 minutes because things were not going smoothly. Last night she did her alloted hour but it was still a strangely scattershot affair, at times more like therapy than comedy.

The feisty 44-year-old clearly has the attention span of a hyperactive toddler. One minute she was singing the praises of her supportive hosiery, the next suggesting that racists have such medieval ideas they should be forced to live medieval lives, without antibiotics.

She wondered what Brits see in cricket, calling the game “random and arbitrary”. The same could be said for her set. Luckily she was compelling company even when not particularly funny.
Until 14/23 August (www.edfringe.com). Garofalo is at the Bloomsbury Theatre on 25 September (020 7388 8822, www.thebloomsbury.com).