Sam Lake is happy. He’s smashing both life and, more importantly, his Zumba classes. It’s not often a Fringe show starts on such a positive, confident note, but Lake is bucking the trend. Needless to say, the positivity doesn’t last for too long. After warming up the crowd with some lighter jokes, he dives into the heavier stuff. Esméralda is a coming-of-age story of a kind, a tribute to Lake’s late mother, who died when he was 18. Over the course of an hour the comic looks back on how his mum made him the man he is today, and the touching moments they shared during his adolescence.

A charismatic presence on stage, Lake always knows precisely when to cut the tension, just before the show starts getting a bit too heavy. There’s plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, such as the routine in which Lake discusses him and his mother’s shared passion for crap telly. At times he relies a little too heavily on popular internet vernacular for easy laughs: a lazy trope that a comedian of his ability doesn’t need to fall into. Aside from that, this is gimmick-free stand-up that traverses the line between heartbreaking and hilarious.

Sam Lake: Esméralda, Monkey Barrel, until 25 August, 1.30pm; main picture: Corrine Cummings.