Very few rare medical conditions sound like a breeze, but Kyle Ayers’ rare medical condition sounds particularly awful. Trigeminal Neuralgia is nicknamed ‘suicide disease’ and involves regularly feeling like you’re being electrocuted by your own brain. If you’re unsure whether this set-up lends itself well to a stand-up show, type the words ‘comedy’ and ‘tragedy’ into the internet, and you’ll find thousands of quotes linking them together. Ayers knows this, and blends both effortlessly throughout Hard To Say. It can feel a little light on jokes at times, but that rarely gets in the way due to his ability as a storyteller. 

The difference between Ayers’ show and a lot of others that revolve around personal tragedy is that there is no happy resolution to round this one off. After brain surgery that left him clinically dead for eight seconds, he was rid of his condition for five months before it returned worse than ever. But Ayers has somehow found the positives in all this. In fact, he says, he probably never would have come to the Fringe otherwise; it’s truly impressive how optimistic Ayers is. He encourages us to see people in a positive light as we have no idea what they’re going through. His, after all, is an invisible condition. Hard To Say may not be the outright funniest show of the Fringe, but it’s certainly one of the more inspiring.

Kyle Ayers Presents: Hard To Say, Just The Tonic At The Caves, until 25 August, 7.25pm.