What better way to combat Sunday’s blistering heat than to spend the evening in the company of two of the coolest comedians?

The Canadian double bill of Tony Law and Tom Stade was part of The Basement’s impressive line-up of Edinburgh Fringe preview shows (expect notebooks and voice-recorders) running through July.

Tony Law’s laid-back, wild-eyed comedy feels like a stream of consciousness: inventive, off-kilter and bewildering. His clunky but never cumbersome hour involved playing the porn star name game, comparing the names “Stalin” and “Palin” and a bout of saying “Gok Wan” in a host of demented voices. He knows there will always be some stoic faces in his audience but that never stops his more surreal digressions like why underpants lose their whiteness or where missing socks go. All punctuated by a running commentary better than any review.

Tom Stade, conversely, displays a supreme confidence in his art. With abundant charisma, a husky drawl and a lackadaisical personality, Stade shows a respect for his audience sometimes missing in stand-up.Questioning England, Wales and Scotland’s decisions for national animals (lion, dragon and unicorn respectively) and manipulating our fear of unattended luggage complemented the deliciously inappropriate segments. Drugs, terrorism, suicide bombing, and starvation in Africa are raised sublimely, usually softened by the inclusion of an unwitting audience member as Stade’s friend “Heroin Jimmy”.

Despite the incomplete form of their acts, there was never doubt that two comedic brains were working at full power.