"A shandy - for the lady!"

Another good, consistent night at the Malarkey on Tuesday, and off to a fantastic start with cheeky whippersnapper Dan Nightingale.

Dan instantly won the audience over with his cheeky brand of observational comedy. His delivery was faultless (and is better for being more energetic than it was a few months back), and the punchlines generally worked very well. What's really annoying is that anyone can be this good and this young at the same time. Git!

He's obviously got a talent for writing and presentation - I think he'll go far.

Next up was comedy new boy John Musson.

John's main problem was the material. There were some good little quips (usually some interaction with the audience) but the gags were just too laboured in the build up, and the punchlines weren't worth the wait.

That said, the delivery was confident and clear and if John can write some better material then he should do fairly well. To be fair it was only his fifth time on stage so it'll be interesting to see what he's like a few months down the line.

Third act of the night was the unpredictable and slightly bonkers Dave Twentyman.

Dave's 'character' I think was intended to be a pisshead - but I don't think it's that far from the truth! To be honest I wasn't sure what to expect. I'd heard different things about him and was half expecting a sort of "I'm mad me" kind of comic. However I was pleasantly surprised to see some fairly decent material which seemed to get plenty of laughs from the crowd.

The set was a bit haphazard - maybe it's supposed to be, apparently he's very unpredictable - but it went on too long with all the questions at the end. Although it was funny to begin with it began to get a bit boring. Trim the improv, please, Mr Twentyman.

Penultimate act of the night was the impressive comedy duo Electric Forecast.

Once again the Forecasters had a storming gig with a very highly polished and rehearsed set. Although having said that they're obviously capable of audience banter, and it's impressive to see them work together while doing this.

The punchlines aren't actually that great, but it's all in the delivery, which can't be faulted at all. The phrase "A shandy - for the lady!" might not seem that funny written down but when they slipped that into a parody of the song Something Stupid I came close to actually hurting myself laughing. So top marks for that alone.

Headliner of the night and making his debut at Bar XS was Alan Carr.

Alan Carr - imagine a camper version of Frankie Howerd and you're pretty near the mark. Visually he's not a million miles from Michael Caine either. Must be the glasses.

Alan had plenty of excellent gags and it was good too see that he didn't overdo the camp element and innuendo like Julian Clary is inclined to do. That combined with great delivery and timing made for an impressive headline act.

Good night all round, I thought.

Spider.