"I was called a Gaylord the other day..."

The night got off to a cracking start with Malarkey debutant Duncan Logan.

Duncan had great delivery on stage, and some great material, mainly observational. Okay, some of it had been done before (rescuing the black brick in swimming lessons for example) but it generally got good laughs from the crowd. I particularly liked the observation about smoking in the swimming baths being a fire hazard... He finished the set with a series off guitar riffs on a miniature plastic guitar, making ten minutes of decent material from Duncan.

Next on were a comedy duo who've played XS a couple of times now, Mark and Ben.

Mark bounded onto the stage first and made the audience sing Living in a Box in order to get Ben on stage. An unusual start which could easily backfire at some other clubs but the audience went for it. One of the highlights of the set was a poem comprised entirely of the quotes of George W Bush. They finished off with the 'throwing confectionary at Mark's t-shirt' routine. All in all a good set which went down well with the crowd.

Third onto the Malarkey stage was impressionist and Comedy Balloon regular Mark Langley.

Scouser Mark had a laid back but confident style on stage, with an impressive array of gags (a couple of nob gags but they still got laughs). He followed that up with convincing impressions including Bobby Robson, an excellent Alan Shearer and John Barnes, along with various soap stars. Great material and great impressions. Bastard!

After the break came excellent Manc scally Tony Burgess, doing a short set and plugging his new play at the Royal Exchange Theatre.

Tony did a bit of stuff he's done before at Malarkey's but most of the crowd hadn't heard it before. From living in Cheetham Hill to having a long term relationship and living in Oldham. One of my favourite lines is the one about Head & Shoulders being a shit name for a shampoo: "You wouldn't call bog-roll Crack & Cheeks." A great ten or so minutes from Tony.

Next on, main support of the night, and positively flouncing onto the stage was camp-as-Christmas glittermonger Jonathan Mayor.

Jonathan did bits from the set I've seen him do a few times, but with the nature of his personality there's always something new in there, usually a scathing put-down to anyone who dares heckle him or fails to join in with a rousing chorus of "Yes you are!" when he asks the audience, "Aren't I gorgeous?" He seems to be doing pretty well in his comedy career so far so good luck to him. Where Jonathan really comes into his own is compering and improvisation - heckle him if you dare! A pithy comment from him usually silences hecklers. A good, solid set tonight (with a few new bits as well) and the audience loved it (especially the women for some reason...) Best line of the set was an improvised one to some gobby tart with dreadlocks: "White people with dreadlocks, that's like black people voting Conservative." Top.

Headliner of the night was one of the most prolific comics I've ever seen, Greg Cook.

Whilst still being relatively new-ish to the comedy circuit (probably about a year or less) Greg writes an amazing amount of material, particularly topical stuff. He came runner-up in the City Life Comedian of the Year last year, so I reckon he's destined for great things. Greg has a shedload of gags at his disposal, but they quite often have a valid point. He's about as laid back as they come, which is possibly to his disadvantage as occasionally the audience need a bit more energy to get going. No such problem at Malarkey's of course.

See you next week.

Spider.