Review: One Man Lord of the Rings **

For the last two years, Charlie Ross has delighted Edinburgh audiences with his fast, frantic and inspired one-man blast through the Star Wars trilogy.

This year, he's back with his other show - One Man Lord of the Rings. Filled with the same ingenious impersonations, physical comedy, sound effects and asides which break the fourth wall, this show suffers only from its choice of subject matter.

Whilst nearly everyone in Ross' target audience group knows the Star Wars movies backwards, there are an ever-decreasing number who are as intimately familiar with each of the three LotR movies. So, whilst his Gollum is spot-on and his re-enactment of massive battle scenes is great fun to watch, most of the references are lost on an audience who maybe have only seen the first film in the trilogy.

It works best when he's spoofing the material - such as the references to Orlando Bloom's hair or the self-aware "insert the next DVD now" lines, but all too often you find yourself agreeing with the audience member who shouted out "do Star Wars!" half-way through.

One Man Lord of the Rings' run is now over.

Festival highlight #2 - One Man Lord of the Rings

Although I'm not a huge fan of comedy routines at the Fringe (I'm of the view that you can switch on E4 most nights and see that kind of stuff for free), I caught Charlie Ross's One Man Star Wars show a couple of years back and loved it.

Appealing both to my inner geek and my outer critic, Ross achieved a remarkable feat: cramming all 3 Star Wars movies, characters and special effects into a frantic, frenetic and funny 60 minute show. On his own. With no props.

He was back last year with the same show but I gave it a miss, reasoning it wouldn't be as impressive as the first viewing. Whether that's true or not, I'll definitely be catching his 2009 return, with his One Man Lord of the Rings show. Obviously of a very similar ilk, if it's half as irreverent and accomlished as its predecessor, it'll be a winner.

My outer critic is cautiously optimistic.

My inner geek is very excited and looking forward to the one-man re-enactment of the battle of Helm's Deep...