While the initial bear act was, like the creature's proverbial action in the wood, shit, the rest of the show was good and at times stunning.
The MC appeared to have been cryogenically frozen since the seventies, his jokes were also rather old and cheesy, but this was all part of his act and with triple espresso energy he quickly warmed up the audience.
One of the funniest and most surreal points in the cabaret was the MC's live link-up, to what was clearly himself several months earlier.
While the bear act was slow, dull and way past its sell by date, some of the other acts were quite the reverse. The puppetry of the freaky poledancer and the shadow puppet film were of such a dodgy darkness, that they were both raunchy and very wrong.
The films are very strong, after the shadow puppetry of Thumbsucker there was the Barbarellaesque high camp of Clementine the Living Fashion Doll, a Barbie doll with a real women's head. A really clever special effects spectacular.
The final act, Suitcase Circus, was a slight let down after all the raunchiness of the previous puppets. It also dragged on rather long.
Bear with the show and you will get to meet some of the Fringe's filthiest puppets.