Jake Yapp is One in a Million

In a festival of around 4,000 shows, it's tricky to even scratch the surface of what's on offer. Enter Jake Yapp, who saves everyone a great deal of time by doing "the entire Edinburgh Fringe in five minutes" – so follows perhaps the most honest and acutely satirical opening to any act this year. 

These "X in X number of minutes" segments are his party piece (having performed them on Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe), showcasing both his vocal talents and his acerbic eye for deconstruction. That's his game: he sees, he processes, he decodes. Although he does describe his Fringe summary as "nasty and unwarranted", these dismantlings (he also tackles Adam Curtis documentaries and "next-level veganism") aren't vitriolic in nature; they're done out of affection and enthusiasm for the craft. 

As Yapp himself notes, though, it's difficult to transmute some two-minute vignettes on a TV show into a full hour of standup, so he endeavours to extend the dissection onto society in general. The show evolves from quickfire précis of the zeitgeist to a sprawling send-up of our tribal nature. Therein lies the reasoning behind the title; we're not really unique, so why not embrace the commonalities we share? 

With an inimitable style and the substance to go along with it, Yapp's neat little decryptions are reliable regardless of the target. He's doing the take-downs that many dream up but few can execute, and debunking the things you hate but can never articulate exactly why.