quick wits; The great thing about The Fast Show was that it left us

whatever you do, don't miss this The Fast Show Live

SECC, Glasgow, October 11 A key element in the myth of the Fast Show - and it's become at least as mythic in British comedy history as Fawlty Towers and Monty Python - is the definite and decisive ending. Three series, plus three "last ever" specials to collect all the loose material, and that was that. The semi-revolutionary sketch show - overcrowded with characters, overloaded with punchlines, over- quoted by the public - had quit while it was ahead. Left them wanting more. But it's rarely that simple.

Creators Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson are artists, and the only artists who really leave well enough alone are the ones who shoot themselves or choke to death on their own vomit. Whether motivated by art (maybe the characters are so vivid and hilarious that they can't be laid to rest) or commerce (another live tour will make them an absolute fortune, and Whitehouse's mid-life-crisis com- dram Happiness didn't exactly set the civilised world on fire), they're taking the show on the road one more time.

"I spent six years touring as a pop singer in the 1980s," says Higson, "and it's exciting to think that I can now relive the experience as a tired and decrepit old man."

You would hope the cast have such integrity that they wouldn't be doing it if the writing wasn't as good as ever. And that they'll find room for your favourite characters among the 100-plus they came up with for the series. Some people love the Suits You tailors; some prefer the Jazz Club host. Personally, if I don't see Johnny the manic-depressive landscape painter ("Black! Black! You lock me in the cellar and feed me pins!") or Professor Dexter ("I've been investigating spacebats") up on stage, I'm going to feel pretty goddamn short-changed.

who to watch Francesca Martinez I'mperfect, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, October 18 Born with mild cerebral palsy, Francesca Martinez (familiar to ageing TV kids as Rachel from Grange Hill) learned to short-circuit both taunters and sympathisers by being funnier on the subject than anyone else could or would be. And it's doing no disservice to her writing - this show, which has taken her from Melbourne to Broadway to the Edinburgh Fringe, broadens her scope to the wider world of religion and politics - to say that her truest stories are her funniest, from first dates and humiliation from doctors to hassle from shop security guards.

It's a smart show despite that slightly gimmicky title (it can be read either way, apparently). In the finale, Martinez gamely tries to overcome her impairment by cutting the hair of an audience member. So very, very badly.

for your diary Bill Bailey Usher Hall, Edinburgh, September 28 Now getting some much overdue credit as the over-eager, multi-phobic straight-man on Dylan Moran's mean, cultish TV sitcom Black Books, Perrier-award-winning Bailey (pictured) has been speaking his own mind on stage for about 15 years now. And it's the kind of mind that skips from elaborate whimsy to musical genre deconstruction (Bailey's songs have included Unisex Chip Shop and Human Slaves In An Insect Nation).

Ed Byrne Rothes Halls, Glenrothes, October 17; Dundee Rep Theatre, October 19; Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline, October 20; His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen, October 21 Over-educated but popular/populist Irishman who once devoted a whole show to pedantically pulling apart the lyrics of the Alanis Morissette song Ironic. "It's just metaphors!" protested an Alanis fan in the audience. "Technically," retorted Byrne, "they're similes."

The Rocky Horror Show King's Theatre, Glasgow, October 14-19; Edinburgh Festival Theatre, October 21-26; His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen, October 28 to November 2 This latest production of the world's favourite S&M schlock musical cranks its kitsch value up to 11 with the casting of the galactically useless Jonathan Wilkes (Robbie Williams's flatmate) as Frank N Furter and exhaustively opinionated I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! survivor Rhona Cameron as the narrator. Which means she'll have to show us her sussies at the end.

Al Murray: Who Dares Wines Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, October 18&19 Having toured the world, won the Perrier award and built a TV series with his last show And A White Wine For The Lady, the Pub Landlord brings his retro-British tunnel-vision worldview to bear on the current state of global and sexual politics.

Bernard Manning Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, October 16 Some people would describe lardy Mancunian Manning as a hatefully sexist, racist and homophobic throwback who genuinely deserves to die. Some don't give him a second thought. But quite a few people - sell-out crowds of people, in fact - will buy tickets to see him and will laugh like drunken pirates. Takes all sorts, doesn't it?

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