The prodigal son returns...

Toby made a welcome return to Bar XS on Tuesday. And opened the evening with some suitably sick jokes.

First up on the Malarkey milk crate was the lovable cheeky chipmunk Geoff Taylor.

Geoff’s topical comedy was met with a good reception at the Malarkey on Tuesday. He had loads of new material most of which was bang on the money. The Yes Car Credit and the VAT on foods stuff fell a bit flat. My favourite line was "Oedipus complex is a right motherfucker."

After the new material had run it’s course Geoff fell back on some of the older more reliable material, which although it did get the laughs sounded a bit dated [That's topical comedy for you - Spider]. And Geoff looking at this watch every two minutes was a little distracting. Overall though, a good opener to what was going to turn into a fine evening.

Carrot-topped Stevenage boy Paul Kerensa was second on the Malarkey stage and absolutely stormed it. Paul combination of designs for life, observational witterings and maths-based humour was bang on the money at XS on Tuesday. Anyone that can storm a club using simultaneous equations has got to be a bit special.

Paul’s polished, amenable delivery does justice to his fantastic and original material.

After the break Markus Birdman took to the Malarkey stage. Markus’ sick jokes and self-deprecating set analysis struggled a little at Bar XS. There were some obvious peaks in the set but more lows than highs. Perhaps it would work better in a shorter set.

The headliner on Tuesday was the truly fantastic Alex Boardman.

Alex was clearly on top form on Tuesday and really threw all the energy into the performance. His tall tales of early nineties raves, childhood experiences are a good expression of his quick thinking, sharp wit and keen observations.

Act of the night had to be Paul Kerensa. That bloke is going to be a star.

See you next week.

Lee.