Stand-up comedy is a fickle whore. With the wide variety of styles and preferences, matching the right performer with the right crowd can be exhausting. Which is likely why nearly 20% of the audience magically disappeared during A New Canadian Century. Playwright Matt Lisac's hour-long stand-up routine took shots at religion (which accounted for loss of around 10%), politics (10%), race (5%) and The Special Olympics (5%). It's not that anything was structurally wrong with the show - bar an unnecessary musical number and the lack of a good editor - but his self-deprecating tone and observational stoner humour just don't connect with a Fringe audience. And from the first awkward moment, when Lisac was brought onto the stage by dramatic intro music, to the end, when he seemed to drift from a punchline to a farewell, A New Canadian Century is a show that is so extremely out of place at the Fringe that you just might like it.

Two and a half out of five stars.