A place or person that can laugh at itself is a well-rounded and confident entity. Supporters of Aberdeen FC have been known to take the baiting about their alleged and disgracefully stereotypical predilection for farm animals in good fun, reacting with a very charming and quite admirable amount of levity and self-mockery. So when the organisers of the city’s comedy festival met to concoct a slogan for their two-week event, what else would work than ‘Ha! Ha! Haberdeen!’. A special kind of genius, that.

But catchphrasing aside, have they put the laughter where their mouths are by enticing quality acts all the way to the Granite City so soon after Edinburgh has chortled its last Fringe-infused snigger? Darn tootin’ they have. Probably considered as headline acts are Strictly victor Chris McCausland, impersonator extraordinaire Rory Bremner, Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Bridget Christie, medic-turned-comic Adam Kay, Fife wag Daniel Sloss, and stand-up provocateur Stewart Lee who takes on the Man-Wulf.

Skirting along the edges of what might be deemed the next level down (which is often the spot where more intriguing performers reside) are sketch double-act Shelf, laconic ‘Frenchman’ Marcel Lucont, Sophie Duker with a work-in-progress show, Kieran Hodgson (pictured) doing his Voice Of America set, and clowny performer Elf Lyons. Alex Ferguson, Aberdeen FC’s legendary boss from the 1980s, is believed to have once mused that he knew the home crowd was getting excited because you could hear the rustle of toffee-wrappers becoming ever more frenzied. With the aforementioned lot in town, surely the bellowing laughter would drown out even that deafening sound?

Aberdeen Comedy Festival, various venues, Aberdeen, Monday 22 September–Sunday 5 October.