For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
"Even if you don't like it, you're not going to leave before the end," says Alex Horne a little way into his show.
He plans to spend the hour on stage building an elaborate contraption - involving ladders, bowling balls, a balloon, a blow-up mattress, some rice and many, many planks of wood - which will only be set in motion at the climax.
It's one way to keep the audience hooked, but they would probably stay anyway: this is a delight of a show.
Horne is building a reputation for being a Fringe maverick. Nominated for the Perrier Award in 2003, his shows have moved ever further from traditional stand-up.
Last year, he mimed half of his hour. This year, he has raided DIY store Wickes to pay homage to his hero, Rube Goldberg, inventor of nutty, over-complicated machines to perform the simplest tasks.
Edinburgh Festival 2014
Show all 23
The real joy of the show, though, is not in the building of the machine - a fairly chaotic enterprise - nor the excellently eccentric soundtrack, but the way Horne sneaks his comedy in under the radar as he fiddles about with pipes and funnels.
Offbeat insights - how he'd like to make his gravestone into a crazy golf hole, for example - mingle with daft audience interaction, which allows his affable comic skill to shine. Surreal and silly, it's like spending an hour inside a Roald Dahl book.
It all very nearly comes together in the end, with a rather touching tribute to fatherhood. Unlike Goldberg, Horne has made something quite complex look easy.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies