Jeremy Hardy isn't doing the Edinburgh Fringe this year – not according to the Fringe website anyway. But somehow he has sneaked into the Red Imp comedy club's preview season alongside the likes of Tony Law, Kerry Godliman and Richard Herring. Well, in the same way we give up our seats to war veterans on the bus, we can make an exception for someone of his seniority and also his significance. Hardy was one of the first wave of alternative comedians who took shows to the Edinburgh Festival in the 1980s, back when the programme was a pamphlet rather than a hernia-inducing doorstop. He was nominated for a Perrier Award in 1987 and won it in 1988, the second solo act to be victorious and setting a trend for the future. Back then Hardy was known as a nerdy, cardigan-wearing neurotic. These days Robin Ince seems to have cornered that market, while Hardy has become increasing political. As others shift to the right, Newsquiz regular Hardy is the Tony Benn of stand-up, sticking firmly on the left. But he is no pompous preacher. His recent shows combine crowdpleasing R4-friendly observational gags about middle-aged ailments and life's general irritations that wouldn't be out of place in a Michael McIntyre set with sharp satirical insights into the state of the nation. The cardigans might be gone, but the comedy is far from moth-eaten.

Jeremy Hardy is at the Red Imp tonight doing a set that isn't an Edinburgh work-in-progress, with Mary Bourke who is. Tickets here.