"I clapped until my hands exploded."

First up onto the XS Malarkey stage tonight, making his Bar XS debut, was Jim Allen.

Jim got off to a rather shaky start and it took about four minutes before the first 'proper' laugh arrived. There were quite a few awkward silences which didn't help things. The material was quite surreal in places (budgies on the loose in Fallowfield?). Very, very strange. Some laughs, but about as close to a death at Malarkey's as you can get. Reminded me of Alan Wilde in places.

Next on, making his debut at XS Malarkey, was Chris Roche.

Chris took to the stage and soon won the crowd over with his easy-going style, matched with some great gags, observational and anecdotal material. The only thing Chris should take note of is to hold the microphone closer to his mouth as, compared with Toby's projecting voice, I had to strain to listen (before we turned the PA up a bit - not all venues will bother to do this). Other than that Chris had a great set and went down really well with the crowd. Top debut.

After the break, third onto the Malarkey stage was another relative newcomer, Mike Newall.

Mike played Malarkey's back in April and had a stormer, so would he be as successful in June? Pretty much. His material ranged from dogs' shitting habits to scuba diving to conversations in saunas. He had a laid back style, almost to the point of being deadpan, but it seemed to work pretty well. Good stuff.

Main support of the night was the high-energy Don Dube.

Don entertained the audience with stories about his being Canadian and various cultural differences. The material was generally pretty good although there was quite a bit of new stuff that needed polishing. A few gags fell a bit flat but for the most part hit home. Not his best gig at Malarkey's but didn't do too badly.

The headliner of the night was one of the best comics I've seen at Malarkey's for a long time, Sarah Kendall.

Australian comic Sarah gave a feisty, energetic, and extremely confident performance that won the crowd over from the word Go. Anecdotes, observations and opinions all had the audience in stitches. Top laughs from start to finish, and probably one of the best comics we've had on at Malarkey's. Even better than the first time she was on. Absolute stormer.

See you next week.

Spider.