Kevin Bridges' long-awaited solo debut lives up to expectation and even has a greatest hits feel to it, writes Jay Richardson.

After five years of performing, Kevin Bridges has finally brought a debut solo show to the Edinburgh Fringe.

The burden of expectation upon the Glaswegian will have been tempered by the fact that there seems to be a significant number of his established fans in the roomy Pleasance One, the 22-year-old having sold out his compact Joker Dome venue long before the festival started.

As such, there’s a greatest hits feel to this hour yet Bridges segues capably through his routines, his uncompromisingly forceful delivery leaving you in no doubt about the difference between a cute wee dog and a snarling “dug” named Sasha.

Unstintingly brutal about Glasgow’s status as heart attack, lung cancer and suicide capital of Europe, he evokes a grim city of “antiques and sporting equipment” shops selling significantly more baseball bats than baseballs.

While his observational eye is keen on stupidity, recalling a BNP graffitied swastika daubed besides two failed attempts at the symbol, and he has a lovely routine about a doomed hijack of a Glasgow-to-Majorca flight, it’s Bridges’ tough yet subtle way of couching a phrase that affords his gags such impact, his signature joke about the misuse of a kitchen appliance triumphantly closing an assured first festival outing for him.

Four stars

Kevin Bridges: An Hour To Sing For Your Soul is on until August 31 at the Pleasance Dome, 8.45pm. Click here for tickets.