Andrew Maxwell, Jim Jeffries

Watson & Oliver, Tom Basden, Edward Aczel

With the Fringe heading into its endgame, it’s time to assemble some of the interesting acts we’ve not had the space to cover more fully. And few acts are more dependably interesting than Andrew Maxwell (Pleasance Courtyard, 0131-556 6550). No longer burdened by the desire to frame his capers with conspicuous themes, the Irish comic now just gets on with recounting them – and does so masterfully.

This year’s jaunts include meeting Bertie Ahern in a pub after calling him a “mother******” on Irish TV, and finding himself out drinking with some Sinn Fein activists. His stories, which all address fanaticism in one form or another, sometimes peter out. Even so, it’s this compelling comic’s most successful show yet.

Jim Jeffries is a great comic who could one day be a Great Comic. His latest show 30 (Udderbelly, 0870 7453083) has the Australian looking at his brushes with cancer, taking a beating on stage (a YouTube favourite) and discussing a family background he’s come to realise is not as normal as he thought it was. It’s punchy, intelligent stuff. But Jeffries is gentler than he wants to let on: his machismo frees him up to talk turkey and can also distract him from developing his ideas further.

Lorna Watson and Ingrid Oliver are fine performers whose second sketch show as Watson and Oliver (Pleasance Courtyard) is bright and slick and too safe to quite convince.

Where this duo have their own voice is when they don’t speak. Plying physical comedy in routines such as in their 2012 Olympics finale, they’re on to something.

Tom Basden (Underbelly) doesn’t speak a word, but sings plenty of them. Basden turns out tuneful, snappy songs about minutiae and pop culture – he serenades Robbie Williams in his fab funeral-themed finale, Let Me Inter You.

Meanwhile, his PowerPoint presentation handles the small talk with text and cartoons. It’s beautifully done, even if by the end such exquisite cleverness leaves you gasping for a real emotion.

About one sixtieth as slick as Basden, Edward Aczel (Laughing Horse at Edinburgh City FC, 0131-557 3838) makes a virtue of his disarray. Performing in daytime, for free (donations welcome), he shuffles his way effortfully through everything from taking to the stage to mumbling his jokes to roping us all in for a pub quiz.

He’s a funny man, an original, who treads the fine line between artful shambles and total waste of time.