Mat Ewins review – hi-tech gags from multimedia noodler extraordinaire

Just the Tonic at the Mash House, Edinburgh
Artistry and geekery combine in a set that shows off Ewins' clever video editing and pranksterish sense of fun

Brexit. #MeToo. Editing a newspaper on Mars. One of those isn't a popular topic among fringe comics. Indeed, I can imagine only one comedian making a show about it. Step forward, Mat Ewins, 2017 comedy award nominee and multimedia noodler extraordinaire. Last year, he unleashed his fiendish programming and editing skills - and all-conquering sense of fun - on a spoof Indiana Jones epic. Now he ventures deeper into hi-tech tricksiness - but also reveals more of himself - in this tenuous foray into interstellar media.

It's ceaselessly inventive and daft - and it's "piffle" (Ewins' word) too. How else to describe his videos of football matches with the ball removed, or his all-new Martian sport that involves catching cats with a magnetic moustache. The newspaper narrative is only ever a thread from which to hang these techie sketches, and even its denouement is constructed as a video game, in which the audience controls Ewins' editor character in a high-stakes - and highly-ridiculous - job interview scenario.