Hmm, a bit of an indifferent night tonight. First up was southern comic Jem Brookes.

Jem started off with a couple of weak stereotypes of Liverpool and Manchester and then tried to banter with the audience, with varying degrees of success. It came across as almost mainstream, with a few cheap insults, one in particular that didn't make sense at all, to a lad in a body warmer: "What's your name, sir?" "Leon." "I can see why you'd need a body warmer with a name like that." Hmm. Then followed more Liverpool stereotypes, Manc stereotypes ('cos we ALL talk like scallies) and a Scottish stereotype. He did have one fairly decent Twister gag, but that was about it. He didn't really die but it wasn't a good start to the night.

Second on, making a return to Malarkey was the open spot of the night, Ben Schofield.

Ben immediately took at atmosphere in the place up a gear with a well-paced high energy set with some great punchlines that got a good response from the audience. Material from tug-of-war competitions between an elephant and 44 dwarves to the word trampoline sounding like a cleaning product for the homeless. I find it a shame that he was the open spot for the night as he was probably the best act of the night. Without a doubt the best set I've seen from Ben and I'm sure next time he'll be getting a paid booking. He wass certainly good enough to be main support.

Next on was teacher-turned-comedian Louis Martin.

Much of Louis' set was made up of material about being a teacher (such as parents' evenings being more like singles nights), mixed together with a few one-liners (including three book titles with fairly decent punchlines). A few of the gags were met with a muted response but most of the set went down fairly well. I think Louis needs to inject a bit more energy in, though.

Next up after Louis was a comedian who hadn't played Malarkey's in a while, London comic David Bloom.

David has some reasonably good observations, gags and anecdotes, in his own unique laid-back style, and a couple of neat turns of phrase ("The lubricant on the fist of industry" being a good one). Added to that were some pretty good advertising slogans and a great gag about Hendrix drowning in a pool of his own vomit. A few near the knuckle gags topped off a decent all-round set from David.

Headliner of the night was Malarkey veteran and former Oldham resident Alex Boardman.

Alex did well enough but I've seen him do far better. He seemed like he wasn't really that much in the mood tonight - not sure why. Much of the set was done in a fairly rambling style. But then, when Alex comperes that sometimes tends to be his style, rather than doing a proper set. There were good bits as you'd expect but I couldn't help feeling somehow let down. So not the best performance from Alex but he's good enough for non-regulars not to notice.

See you next week.

Spider.