"I've been pissing on yer nana since Spring of '37."

Dan Nightingale First up tonight was someone making a big name for himself on the local comedy circuit, Dan Nightingale.

Dan's humour was a blend of observations, anecdotes and audience banter. A particular highlight for me was the material about his grandparents having sex ("You think you invented golden showers!"). Quality stuff. Considering Dan hasn't been a stand-up comic for that long he has impressive stage presence and material, and he's a dab hand at the old audience banter as well. He'll go far I think. He now comperes the Beat The Frog night at the Frog & Bucket.

Jamie Douglas Second onto the stage, making his debut at XS Malarkey, was Jamie Douglas.

Jamie had some fairly good material, with some quite surreal observations, and a stage presence which reminded me a little bit of Markus Birdman. There was a bit where he got a volunteer onto the stage for a bit of comedy miming, which was a bit weird, but it got a few laughs. Altogether not too bad, but might have been better going on first - Dan's a tough act to follow.

Jo Dakin Third onto what she described as an "MDF platform" was the mighty Jo Dakin.

I've heard Jo's material a million times before, but she has a couple of new lines here and there. The main thing I noticed I noticed tonight was the delivery style. Jo's been experimenting with her 'traditional' character and her newer character, 'a woman'. I think the new cross between the two works wonders. The delivery is faster but still disturbing. And now and again she changed bits or had a little bit of audience banter. I think the timing and delivery of the punchlines was probably the best I've seen her do yet. Well done Jo.

Al Pitcher After a quick plug for Two, the play Toby was in which disappointingly few Malarkey regulars went to see, came the headliner of the night, Kiwi comic Al Pitcher.

I was looking forward to seeing Al as he stormed it the last time he played (he wasn't headlining then as well). Most of Al's set was audience banter and improvisation, which was superb, in a bouncy, energetic kind of way. The bits of material scattered around the set were good but for me the banter is the best part as it's unpredictable. Superb stuff, he'll be back.

See you next week.

Spider.