Edinburgh Fringe: Jason Cook/ Lee Kern/ Barrow Street Theatre

He may describe himself as “a Geordie chancer”, but in reality Jason Cook is a warm comic whose material is utterly devoid of cynicism. Yet he’s far from being pious - he spices up his act with caustic barbs for deserving targets (quite often himself) and has a raft of sharp putdowns for hecklers who think they’re wittier than he is.

Jason Cook, The Stand ****

Much of his material is autobiographical, but Cook subtly weaves in the occasional untruth for added levity. And despite the sly sexual references in his act, he is the antithesis of the modern misogynistic comic, an uxorious bloke who loves his mam, too, and is not afraid to show it. He’s also a man who can’t resist a pun - “Is it a taxing job?” he asks an accountant when he’s chatting to the front row -  and his interaction with the audience is effortless. Among the bigger issues being addressed are love and the importance of making one’s mark in life, while lesser ones are his hatred of Gok Wan, and his fondness for masturbation and Slankets (none of which is necessarily connected).

This show is ostensibly about the heart attack Cook, a hypochondriac at the best of times, thought he was having last Christmas - clearly it’s giving nothing away to say it was a false alarm - which caused him to re-evaluate what was important in his life. He determined to be a better husband to his wife, who he thinks is out of his league and for whom he has rather touchingly constructed an avatar husband called Nathan, who holds down a steady job and sports a pleasing selection of knitwear that he doesn’t look a tit in. “I try to live my life by the creed: ‘What would Nathan do?’,” says Cook, with a sideways leer to let us know he secretly thinks Nathan is a cock.

Cook asked his wife to tell him which of his traits annoyed her; to his credit, and for our entertainment, he reads out the detailed list she presented him with, hilariously acting out things that really rile her but are very funny for us, such as his animal impressions. He uses occasional picture and video inserts well to underline points, but I would have liked more on the actual event that prompted this year’s show, although I hope its title - The End (Part One) - points to a sequel at next year’s Fringe.

A criticism I once had of Cook - that his unashamedly emotive material veers towards sentimental - would not be fair here. This is engrossing storytelling by a naturally funny man and the hour speeds by. Until 29 August

Lee Kern,  Le Monde ****

You may know Lee Kern’s work, as a television film-maker, already, but a few months ago he decided to try his hand at stand-up. Not for him the baby steps of doing a 20-minute spot on a joint bill before progressing to an hour, though - Kern’s Fringe debut is 60 minutes and full of clever, and sometimes discomfiting, comedy in Filthy Raucous Soul Bitch.

Kern likes to play with his audiences’ minds and his jokes often end up in a vastly different place to where they started. Much of his material is about sex and racism - the former he likes a lot and the latter not at all, not least because he’s Jewish. But if it’s knee-jerk liberal PC views you’re expecting, you’ll be thrown by his clever upending of conventions as he explores the appeal of pornography to young men like him and the utter daftness of the BNP’s position on just about everything.

His set-up/ twist/ unexpected pay-off style can become repetitive and Kern has a solid 40 minutes rather then 60, but this is an astonishingly accomplished debut. Until 30 August

Flesh & Blood, Fish & Fowl, Traverse @ St Stephen **

Twenty minutes in and we hear the first words spoken in this devised piece of physical theatre by New York’s Barrow Street Theatre. Jerry and Rhoda work in the underpopulated office of Convenience Foods; in fact they are the only creatures there, except for an annoying fly which makes its presence known by buzzing very loudly. The couple are involved in a weird cat-and-mouse relationship and there is little dialogue between them - they just talk at or over each other.

Those first 20 minutes are taken up by Jerry’s battle with the fly, which includes an extended bit of clowning where he becomes stuck to the flypaper and wound in Sellotape. Over the course of an hour, various other fauna - including a rat, a deer and then a bear - wreak more havoc on both the office and the couple, while flora appear threateningly in weird places, such as filing cabinets.

Perhaps the creators, Geoff Sobelle and Charlotte Ford, who play Jerry and Rhoda, are arguing that we abuse Nature at our peril, but the piece, despite its occasional funny moments, feels like an exercise in Ac-Ting. The breathtaking and genuinely moving coup de theatre, however, which comes at the very end, may make it worth sitting through for some. Until 28 August

• Book tickets for all shows at the Edinburgh Fringe website
• See theartsdesk's UK Festivals 2010 Round-up
• See what's on in the Edinburgh International Festival 2010 13 August-5 September