This show began as a cautionery tale of not booking a Fringe show based solely on its name, but ended in a thoroughly enjoyable hour of entertainment.

Over the last few years the Fringe has played host to a number of similarly named shows, such as ‘One Man Star Wars’ and ‘One Man Harry Potter’ where an entire saga is played out by a single actor standing on a lone stage.

Having thoroughly enjoyed past rap-based shows by festival lyricists Baba Brinkman and Abandoman, and as a fan of Eminem, this one seemed like a pretty safe punt. But again, I hadn’t read the fine print!

The Canons’ Gait pub was packed, the queue snaked around the room with a capacity crowd eagerly waiting to head down to their basement venue. As we began to shuffle in a familiar beat could be heard – but with unfamiliar lyrics. Our clown for the evening was improvising a rap welcoming in the audience.

And that is essentially what our evening would entail, MC Hammersmith improvising a variety of raps inspired by audience suggestions.

Shows like this rely so heavily on both the talent of the performer and the eagerness of the crowd to get involved, and on this evening the stars aligned to the benefit of all involved – from the stereotype-shattering love rap with Darragh the pharmacist to the inspired play on Blackstreet’s 90s classic ‘No Diggity’, where our clown declared there was ‘No Dignity’ about a guy who considers windmilling his penis as a form of courtship…

Every show of this format that MC Hammersmith performs will be unique but the sold-out crowd and sheer number of returning punters would suggest that more often than not they as highly enjoyable as our one turned out to be.

Clown Stars: * * * *

@ Canons’ Gait, Edinburgh