"I found the book surprisingly... in the fridge."

Louis Martin Another decent night at the Malarkey and off to a great start with a comic I've seen at the Comedy Balloon several times, Louis Martin.

Teacher Louis had some good material and an easy-going stage manner which made the audience sit up and listen from the off. He started with a couple of Alzheimer's gags and went into tales of his career as a teacher via a bit of banter with the crowd. Sometimes the banter didn't really go anywhere but sometimes it paid off and got laughs. I reckon if he'd have kept the banter to a minimum and concentrated on the material it would have been that bit better but still, a solid enough set to start off with.

Rob Hitchmough Second onto the stage was Rob Hitchmough.

Rob started off with a couple of gags and went into a debate about smoking, including a couple of wank gags (er, gags about wanking, not poor quality gags), and a bit about rules at the swimming pool. Rob got a reasonable number of laughs from the crowd but didn't exactly set the room on fire at first, but the set got progressively better as it went on, with some nice punchlines in there. There was, however, one absolute highlight when he grabbed someone's phone from the audience, phoned a number at random and claimed the audience member was "noshing me off" - quality!

Dan Willis Third onto the Malarkey stage, after the break, was the first of the two London acts, Dan Willis.

Dan, like a lot of London-based acts we've had at Malarkey's, had a typically slick stage presence couple with some pretty decent material, some topical, some observational with varying levels of filth. There was some wanking material - the hackest of all male subjects - but there was an original slant to it at least. But the rest of the set had some good stuff in it, the bit taking the piss out of rappers in particular.

Juliet Meyers Second of the London acts and penultimate act of the night was a comic making her return to Malarkey's, Juliet Meyers.

The crowd seemed a bit subdued during Juliet's set, and she seemed a little bit nervous to be honest. She didn't quite have the same impact as the first time she played, not sure why though. The material ranged from religion to goldfish to Feng Shui, and was good if not great.

Jim Jeffries Headliner of the night was top Aussie comic Jim Jeffries.

Jim's material started off with topics like the A-Team and the war - not the most original, but he somehow managed to combine the two. He then moved on to religion and had me in stitches with the observation about Jesus speaking to a huge crowd and one guy suddenly says, "That's the guy who built my gazebo!" There was some superb ranting in a Jarred Christmas style, with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. An excellent end to the show.

See you next week.

Spider.