Madcap, zany and wacky are all words seen in recent reviews of Canadian Tony Law’s shows.

Coincidentally, these words are often associated with irritating show-offs lacking substance. Law stayed just on the right side of that tightrope for an enjoyable, albeit brief, performance.

Delayed by 50 minutes, a jumpsuit-clad Law burst on stage with characteristic silliness, crashing into his high-speed stream of consciousness oddball routine.

Equal parts young Robin Williams silly-voice pinball chaos, equal parts slapstick clown, the likeable stand-up reached inspired heights with his take on contemporary dance and performance art.

Often described as a ‘comedian’s comedian’, this is perhaps due to Law’s knowing reference to traditional ideas about stagecraft and subtle inversion of them to suit chirpily subversive aims. Here this worked nicely as audience interaction involved made-up histories of the front row, woven skilfully.

For all the self-reference and good-natured tomfoolery, there was never a sense of this adding up to a cohesive whole. The most surreal comedy can sometimes feel almost too abstract for its own good; the Tonezone certainly suffered from this.

With the overall feeling of flicking through TV channels for ages but never settling on one satisfying show, unfortunately this shortened set was fatally flawed.