This year’s if.comedy shortlist is intriguingly short. Usually five bright sparks pick up nominations; in 2008, it’s only four. Perhaps this represents the mood of the festival. Many comics have been mining themes that proved successful for pioneers last year — and copycats don’t get gongs. Meanwhile, one comic’s manager was overheard revelling in his young male audience: “Look at that demographic! That’s just what TV wants!” Desperate ain’t attractive, either.

That said, desperation does work for shortlisted Rhod Gilbert (Pleasance, 8.40pm, 4 stars), but in a completely different way. Gilbert has spent the past few years delivering whimsical shows about a fictional Welsh home town called Llanbobble — a sort of grown-up Thomas the Tank Engine. This year, he’s delivering raw, frustrated stand-up about his hatred of service culture, where everyone pretends to care but really couldn’t give a stuff. His Michael Douglas Falling Down moment comes when he asks a rude service-station attendant which prize the self-proclaimed “award-winning mince pie” actually won. His resulting nervous breakdown and scream of anguish is, in the best possible way, one of the funniest things on the Fringe. With luck, he’ll stay away from Llanbobble now.

That’s not to say whimsy is wrong. David O’Doherty (The Stand, 9pm, 3 stars) picked up a nomination in 2006 for a show at the Assembly Rooms where he specialised in “low-energy lo-fi musical whimsy”. For this year’s nominated show, he’s moved to the increasingly hip punk-rock comedy venue The Stand, and the intimacy of the room has raised his energy levels. A blistering opening 15 minutes is pure five-star material, although he then settles down into the O’Doherty of observational comedy, silly gags and sly, witty songs. No bitterness in sight.

Which can’t really be said for the third nominee, Russell Kane (Pleasance, 8pm, 4 stars): the boy is bitter like Clinton. He doesn’t like so many things — Americans, his dad, middle-class people, his dad, London, his dad — but what he does like is flaws, failures and foul-ups. The British, he contends, wear their seismic flaws with pride: embracing self-medication, emotional stuntedness, physical imperfections and a mistrust of ambition, achievement and beauty. He then weaves these themes into an ambitious show that achieves a curious beauty. Having also taken a play about a Southend drinking binge delivered in Shakespearian verse to the festival, he is clearly unpredictable. All the more reason to keep your eye on him.

Fans of Flight of the Conchords meanwhile will have been keeping their eye on Kristen Schaal, the cute New York comic who plays the folk duo’s freaky fan in their sitcom. Her double act with Kurt Braunohler (3 stars), the fourth of the nominees, creates an imaginary play, Double Down Hearts, about a doomed relationship, then splices it with skits about sex and tension that break the fourth wall expertly. “I’m talking about this now because you will only look me in the eye when we’re on stage.” It’s charming, psychotic, skilful and a little short; if we’re lucky, they’ll be back.

It’s been a rich year for newcomers. Wilson Dixon (The Stand, 6pm, 4 stars) spoofs a country and western singer with impeccable comedy courage. He’s happy to let the jokes soak in, sometimes prompting laughs a few minutes after the punch line. The main song — an utterly bizarre riff about Uncle Cleetus (he was ambidextrous but illiterate: he couldn’t write with both hands) on a quest to find the Man with No Name to save an increasing number of innocent Asian shopkeepers — tickles Johnny Cash so mercilessly, he’ll be giggling in his grave. Equally, if not more promising, are the Two Episodes of Mash duo (Pleasance, 8.30pm, 4 stars), starring newbies Joe Wilkinson and Diane Morgan. The skits blend the absurd and the sharply real with effortless ease, not dropping the energy or the gag rate for a moment.

Sketch shows about actors coping with the real world are usually so dreadful, they count as a sub-clause to the advice to “write what you know”. In this case, don’t. The premise for Reception (Pleasance, 1pm, 3 stars) reads like a similar disaster, but then Jen Brister and Clare Warde polish this duffer into bold sketches, surreal ideas and slick banter based on the premise that an aspiring performer and her grumpy colleague on Reception (see what they did?) are locked in the office for the night. It’s a little bit patchy, but in the way the Boosh were first time around. Keep an eye out.

Pippa Evans (Pleasance, 4.45pm, 3 stars) is a skilful character comic, although she has a tendency to cram too many different stereotypes into one show. Her strongest by far is the aggressive, lonely country and western singer. An hour of her would blow Wilson Dixon off stage. Tom Wrigglesworth (Pleasance, 6pm, 3 stars) seems set to rise rapidly — urbane and charming, with strong one-liners. Josh Howie (Pleasance, 9.45pm, 2 stars) could take lessons. He promised so much on paper. The son of PR guru Lynne Franks, the inspiration for Ab Fab’s Edina, his tales of life as, effectively, Saffy should have been a deep seam of comedy gold. He pulled out a few nuggets — his mother forcing him to rebirth naked in front of her and an attractive friend, with disastrous results — but with all those riches, he somehow came off poor.

Finally, The Comedy Zone (Pleasance, 10.45pm, 4 stars) can be hit or miss: four first-time Edinburgh stand-ups doing 15 minutes each. Of this year’s lot (Elis James, Henry Paker, Nat Luurtsema, Tom Deacon), the star was Deacon, a sharp-looking mod from Southampton with looks, confidence, charm and great material. Expect other comics to lynch him.