Pink-jacketed Mervyn Stutter has been coming to the Fringe
for 20 years, for 15 of which he has been presenting his resolutely
untrendy Pick Of The Fringe.

His lunchtime audience mostly comprises cosy, middle-of-the-road

Fringe-goers looking for a shortcut to good shows. As a result,
the

cosy, middle-of-the-road image has rubbed off on Mervyn

But what exactly is wrong with presenting a good variety of
around eight acts for a relatively modest admission price?

On the afternoon I went, the audience was ushered in by ten
kazoo-playing performance artists, and the extracts included
a naff comedy sketch show, two world-class jazz singers and a
dramatic but impenetrable Korean performance of indeterminate
meaning. With its catholic taste, it does for multi-genre performers
what Later With Jools Holland does for musicians.

In his one-man show, Mervyn recycles his best music and jokes,
showing at times a far more vicious political bite than many
a trendy young comic.

In 1992, Mervyn stopped playing comedy clubs and started to
concentrate on 'comedy for menopausal flower children' ­
but he never lost his edge. Take, for instance, his song against
American foreign policy which includes a repeatedly screamed-out
chorus: 'Fuck the US!'

Stutter is now showcasing a vastly under-rated and under-seen
comic talent: himself.

John Fleming