"Is the biggest sprout in the world bigger than the smallest cabbage?"

A stormer of a night tonight - partly because a couple of acts didn't show up and we had some top class replacements. First up onto the Malarkey stage was impressionist Richie Martin.

Not that Richie is only an impressionist, he's a stand-up in his own right, but it's the impressions that seem to get the biggest laughs. The material isn't that strong, but some of the impressions are uncannily accurate - Victor Meldrew on the receiving end of a blow job is particularly funny. Overall, an improvement on previous gigs at Malarkey's.

Second on was one of the funniest comics you'll see on the local circuit, the mighty Seymour Mace.

Seymour has a fantastic array of material; one-liners and surreal stories that drag the audience into his weird little world. My favourite bit of the set was the bit about games to play to amuse yourself: Who Can Get The Most Old Ladies To Turn Round By Shouting The Name 'June' Really Loudly. Fucking brilliant! A fantastic act, well worth seeing.

Third onto the Malarkey stage was a young whippersnapper making a welcome return to Malerkey's, Martin Plant.

Martin very nearly didn't make the gig in time as he was stuck on the motorway behind a truck! Glad he did though as he had a fair bit of new material, largely observational (television adverts, for example) but the highlight for me was the 'stupid sayings' bit, which featured some truly excellent sarcasm. Another good gig from Martin, he gets better every time he plays at XS.

Main support of the night was the R.E. teacher from Hull, Kevin Precious.

Well, what can I say about Kevin that I haven't said in previous reviews? Not a great deal as the material was pretty much the same - although it is an excellent set with some great punchlines in there. I wouldn't mind seeing him doing a bit more audience banter, but you can't have everything. He delivered a good, solid set which the crowd enjoyed, the highlight being the 'unfortunate incident' in assembly.

Headliner of the night was a debut for London=based comic Cole Parker.

Cole was quite animated and fast-paced on stage and the material was a combination of observations and anecdotes, with a touch of good old fashioned agression in there, especially with the bits about religion and politics. All in all it was a good, if not great set from Cole. I'm sure he'll be returning before too long.

See you next week.

Spider.