"A Scouse porn site, what a horrible idea!"

Decent night on Tuesday, the first of TWO nights of comedy this week, the second being the Commonwealth special.

First up was relative newcomer and local boy Dave Purdy.

Dave started off a bit nervously but soon settled into his routine with some fairly decent gags, if a bit obvious in the choice of comedy material. There was, however, a bit on the Commonwealth games to keep it contemporary.

Nost of the gags worked quite well and the audience seemed to like Dave's affable personality well enough. Well done, Dave.

Next up was another Mancunian and Comedy Balloon regular, Caroline Jones.

Caroline did some of her usual set, and some newer stuff as well, which mostly hit the mark. I don't think she was that impressed after the gig, but she went down well enough with the audience, I thought. I don't think she's that impressed with this picture either...

Caroline has some great gags but needs a touch more confidence on stage. As with everything it'll come with more experience.

Next onto the Malarkey shoebox was affable roly-poly funnyman Mick Davies.

Mick's appearance at Malarkey's was well-timed as it enabled him to do his 'fat people doing athletics' routine which, while I've heard it before a few times, still makes me chuckle.

Mick's jolly persona never fails to win the crowd over and did so this time. He had one or two new gags, which was nice, but most of it was the tried and tested stuff. Still funny though. The airport signs are always a winner. If Mick could come up with some new stuff he'd be superb. Maybe next time.

The headliner was a very special guest indeed, the brilliant Irish comic and prolific writer Kevin Hayes.

Kevin's set was a blend of Irish politics, religion, banter with the crowd and improvised stuff - and all of it was superb. He has a way of speaking out against things he hates (religion, the Royals, etc.) without making it sound like a tedious whinge. And what's more it's funny.

He came back for a well-deserved encore and left to an enormous cheer from an appreciative crowd. Since he writes so much stuff, hopefully he'll come back soon and do some more.

See you next week!

Spider.