Review by Ros Bell

Another Tuesday, another sweltering night in XS Malarkey. But with only four comedians on tonight, it promised to be short but very sweet indeed. The opener, Paul Betney has a great stage manner, and every time I see him he gets better. His timing and stage presence is spot on and he has some really good, relevant material. Although it does mostly centre on his sclerosis, it's always quite amusing watching the audience get used to his shaking and wonder if it's a put-on or not. There's no doubt he's got the definite potential to make a very good comic. Stand out line: "People think my shaking is caused by me having multiple sclerosis, well they're wrong, I only have one."

Dave Twentyman was the next up.

Usually Dave is open and lovable if a bit nervous and bumbling, but tonight he didn't really look like he was comfortable, he rushed his set and that was a bit disappointing because his comedic style suites a laid back approach. Not his best performance, which is unfortunate as he has some effective material which we didn't see the benefit of tonight.

Cockney lad, Danny James was next to take the stage.

Lively and upbeat, he came out with some pretty amusing anecdotes and worked well with the crowd, especially the (apparently) true story about his first (and last) sky diving efforts, which I really enjoyed. But again he only stayed on for a little while and it didn't feel like he'd really got into the swing of it.

The headline act was Justin Moorhouse, who brought in a huge crowd, even some celebrity appearances - that bird from Corrie was there...

Anyway apologies if anyone thinks this man is a work of comedy genius, but I wasn't overly impressed with his set tonight. It just felt like he wasn't really that bothered. He didn't seem to have that much material and relied mainly on bantering with the crowd, which worked fairly well, but became a bit generic after 20 minutes. Don't get me wrong, he did make me laugh, but his act lacked the originality and vigour I've come to expect from a headliner. It just seemed like he wasn't really trying and wasn't really that arsed either, which I'm pretty sure isn't indicative of his usual work.

One of the funniest lines of his set came from an audience member. Justin: Have you ever had a fat man? Girl: Probably.

The general feeling of unrest throughout the night was probably caused by the immense heat, which generally meant that all the comics looked uneasy and awkward on stage, which was unfortunate as this night could have been much more than it turned out to be.