‘Salmond just fans the flames’

Alex Salmond … Unleashed Assembly Rooms

Emboldened by his daytime Fringe success, Big Eck has gone 18+ and is now taking on Wee Handed Donald using the power of comedy, hoping that that which cannot be brought down by force can be mortally damaged by ridicule.

Salmond is a believer in the power of the idea, and his idea to get Des Clarke on stage with him, as Donald Trump turns out to be an absolute stoatir.

Trump sued the Scottish Government three times and failed till there was no higher court to petition while Salmond was prohibited from saying anything publicly. After the last action failed, he went on CNN News, he tells us, and sang Once Twice Three Times a Loser. “I know it was a bit petty” he shrugs “But I’d been waiting two years.”

The star of the hour is undoubtedly Clarke, channelling Potus for the purposes of the show. He is blindingly funny. John Bishop – a phenomenal comic off the cuff – barely says a word. If the Walking Wotsit can be brought down by jokes, I will bet he is A&E right now. To be fair, Salmond himself takes a bit of a comedy beating from Des-donald, who seems amazed at what he is getting away with up there. He likens Salmond to Susan Boyle, and reveals plans to be eating willies in the jungle with Alex on I’m A Celebrity.

Clarke is on fire and Salmond just fans the flames every so often. “Mad Alex, the man who destroyed Scotland for hundreds of years” (Trump’s description of him) has really got this entertainment thing nailed.

Best of all, he has the ability to turn the show around at the end to deliver a heartfelt coda to the laughter. There is a wry joke about the shock of electoral reversals, and a despairing cry that they could have made “such an arse” of things in the US. KATE COPSTICK