"A song there about the distance from Tipperary..."

A bit of a comedy marathon night tonight and the first of a series of stand-in comperes whilst Toby was performing in the play Sherlock Holmes In Trouble at the Royal Exchange Theatre. Tonight's guest compere was local boy John Warburton.

First up onto the stage was a young man who would later make it into the finals of Channel 4's So You Think You're Funny at the Edinburgh Festival, local boy Rodney Marques.

Psychiactric nurse Rodney told the crowd tales of his job and his dodgy haircut, and made a great job of it. I've seen Rodders do gigs after a few bevvies and his performance has suffered (a warning to all comics I think) but since he was sober his delivery was great. A good start to the show.

Next on, making his debut at XS Malarkey, was a comic seen on the Chortle forums, London-based act Andrew O'Neill.

Andrew's material was quite surreal in places, but funny surreal, not weird surreal. His stage manner was confident and the delivery and timing were spot-on. It was quite an animated set with bizarre observations and stories, with a sarcastic edge which worked really well. Having seen Andrew in Edinburgh a few times it's clear to see he's an able compere (he runs his own club in London). I think we'll be seeing more of him in the future.

Third onto the Malarkey stage was larger than life (and amusingly dressed) funnyman Steve Ferringo.

It was an XS Malarkey debut for Steve and he won the crowd over with his unique brand of northern humour, mainly slightly surreal tall tales, with material ranging from Prince to pies and otters. I thought it was a great first gig at Malarkey's (not sure how long Steve's been going) but the crowd enjoyed it. Good work.

Next came in impromptu five minute set of new material from Susan Murray.

Susan had some good new material which will probably be even better when she's performed it a couple of times (apparently she'd not rehearsed it), but it went down well enough with the crowd. Most notable was the material on Glastonbury and old people being able to work beyong retirement age. Short but sweet.

After the break came an act who's been playing Malarkey's for years, Andy 'Bargains' Brough.

Andy was still doing the Living In A Box and Freak Yachting Accidents material, but at least he did have some new stuff (it's getting increasingly difficult to review Andy...) The new stuff clearly needs a bit of work but there were some highlights. Andy also still suffers from nerves quite a lot which led to a few fluffed lines here and there. Hmm. Not the greatest set from him.

Main support of the night came from filthy, upper-class comic Harriet Bowden.

Harriet's material is quite near-the-knuckle at times (which is no bad thing), with plenty of gags about her upper-class upbringing and family. One of my favourite lines was, "Teachers fucked me up at school. It was the only thing I could drink." She had a quite impressive gags-per-minute ratio, most of them getting decent laughs. Hearing her feeble attempt at a Manchester accent was hilarious!

Headliner of the night was an act who's played Malarkey's many times and not failed to raise the roof, the mighty Roger Monkhouse.

Roger was brilliant tonight, probably the best set I've ever seen him do. Stories and observations aplenty, with a great turn of phrase and excellent at the old audience banter as well. Pretty much sums it up really.

See you next week.

Spider.