Edinburgh's comedy contenders test drive their acts.

Edinburgh Festival Fringe: the Cape Canaveral of British comedy. Over the years we've seen both glorious ascents (Frank Skinner - 1991, Steve Coogan - 1992, Al Murray - 1999) and tragic crashes. This week, a series of Fringe previews at Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) and the Latchmere Theatre in London see young hopefuls prepare for comic orbit. Or ridicule and anonymity…

At the BAC you can enjoy two alter egos of UK comedian Chris Green. In Artificial Hip Hop we meet former music-hall singer Ida Barr, a fallen intercontinental star, still alive, not so well and living in sheltered accommodation in Hackney. Cue crooning on matters of import to her ("home help, flu jabs and the fall she had doing the hokey-cokey last Diwali"), collectively titled The Angina Monologues. Tackling more global matters is Tina C, a little known country singer who just wants the whole world to love each other post-September 11. And she's even written a Twin Towers Tribute of good ole songs to bring us all together. Could go either way, Chris, but a mixture of genital puns and politics performed by a bloke in a dress worked for Barry Humphries.

Chris Green as Ida Barr

Also at the BAC, Hollow Men, veterans of three Edinburgh festivals, unveil a show promising "love, resurrection and buns" via the media of film noir and power pop. But if that all sounds too like the new Queen musical, you might want to sample the much lauded Men In Coats. Silent physical comedy it may be but, if their reputation is anything to go by, these lads should raise more of a titter with their on stage stunts than the Marcel Marceau wannabe in your local precinct ever will.

Over at the Latchmere you can enjoy Andrew Clover's Sixth Birthday Party. Last year's Perrier-nominated Puppy Love apparently involved much full-frontal nudity. This time young Andrew will be keeping his trolleys firmly on as he presents a show themed around his own sixth birthday. Indeed he's going to be so well behaved that we've even been promised he'll be nice to the guests.

Shock-hunters need not be disheartened, however, as also in residence is Natalie Haynes. A veteran of the stand-up circuit, this will be her fringe debut and promises to be a lurid affair. Banned from several venues for offending audiences with jokes about cancer and meningitis, she's clearly not one to shirk those difficult subjects. Her latest routine promises "to dissect six topics… from heartbreak to death, via mice and Alan Turing." Aah, mice. She must be a sweet girl really. CM 11 July 02

At the Battersea Arts Centre:
Hollow Men, 12 and 13 July
Ida Barr in Artificial Hip Hop, 16, 17 and 20 July.
Tina C's Twin Towers Tribute, 18, 19, 20 July.

At the Latchmere Theatre Andrew Clovers Birthday Party, 11, 12, 13 July.
Natalie Haynes' Six Degrees of Desolation 13 july.