“IT smells like you are cooking …. it smells of humans,” sniggered Sara Pascoe as she took the stage of the crammed Basement bar venue last Sunday.

The 100-or-so audience weren’t complaining, despite the hot, crammed conditions.

On the menu was a tasty two-courser: headliner Pascoe (as seen on Mock The Week, QI and Live At The Apollo) and fellow comic and actor friend Jessica Fostekew.

It was billed as an “Edinburgh Preview” ahead of their respective runs at the Fringe in August. “So it is a work in progress,” cautioned Pascoe. “Also known as ‘not ready’!”

Both comics had notes to hand and referred to them during each of their 60-minute sets.

Sometimes this stopped the flow of the show, but that was to be expected – and it was insightful to see the comedians at their craft.

Fostekew was polishing off her new show, The Silence of The Nans, which centres on a hellish booking she endured as a comedian on a cruise ship. She is a fabulous mimic and brings her story to life – and gets the laughs - through her colourful characters, so much so, you feel you are by her side on the ship witnessing the sheer shame and agony of it all.

Newly single, Pascoe is mining her singleton status with her offering, LadsLadsLads. Not that she is meeting many of them (the only lads we hear about are ex-boyfriends, who unsurprisingly are in her firing line). Pascoe has a gentleness about her that is at odds with some of her subject matter (sex, incest, more sex) – but there is an honesty too that the audience can connect with.

Edinburgh audiences are in for a treat – or rather, two.