I have been a follower of this London based Aussie for many, many years now and was totally delighted when he won the premier comedy award at Edinburgh Fringe 2007 as he walked away with the if.comedy trophy for his ‘So I Suppose This is Offensive Now’, a master class in comedy.

Burns has never been afraid to tackle things head on, I have witnessed this over the years I’ve been a fan, and love him as most do, or hate him as a few do, this shoot from the lip entertainer cannot be dismissed even if you tried, ‘cause he has far too much talent to ignore.

He usually has a theme to his shows as evident in past efforts so I was intrigued to see that his performance at The Stand Comedy Club had no title, so who knows what this occasionally ascorbic Oz was going to deliver. Not deterred at all by this, new fan Sheila and I were first in line to witness the show in a far more intimate space than either of us had seen him perform in before.

What we did get however was a little of the material used in previous shows together with some newer stuff that he is developing towards next years Fringe extravaganza as a far more laid back than usual Burnsy relaxed with his enthusiastic crowd for more than 2 hours thirty minutes.

Burns, for all his brashness is usually the butt of his own stories, especially when he was in a far darker mindset than he is in now, but makes little effort to apologise for anything he says or does. He has lived his life to the full, occasionally over full, but hey, nobody is perfect.

I have only recently met the man to speak with and find him a really nice guy and his generosity in both deeds and advise to up and coming comedians is legendry as more than one have told me recently.

He has put in the hard yards for a long time to get to where he is now, and the house full signs are normally a fixture at any gig he is doing, and this of course should be no real surprise. You would be struggling to see a finer example of a comedy genius anywhere, so if you get a chance to see him in your area, do anything you at all to get a ticket, ‘cause if you miss out, then you really have missed out!!

This gig was one of the many fine evenings that are available from Scotland’s top comedy club, The Stand. For future gigs check out their web site www.thestand.co.uk