"Will you get your finger away from me, it stinks of Felix..."

A packed night of great comedy tonight, and first onto the stage, with his small novelty hands, was Dave Ingram.

Dave was trying out a short set of pretty much all new material, featuring the homeless of Bolton (or "street entertainers" as Dave calls them), paedophiles and Ian Huntley lookalikes (with one of the best punchlines I've ever heard - delightfully sick). Dave is one of my favourite comics at the minute, mainly due to the fact that he likes to try out near the knuckle material and has some great turns of phrase of which quite frankly I'm jealous. Great stuff, Dave. You small-handed freak.

Next on was former Nottingham- and now Manchester-based comic Chris Brooker.

Chris started out with his only 'proper' gag of the set, which was aimed at students and earned him a round of applause. Good start! It served as a link into his material about going to the University of Derby (and faily miserably). As a result he ended up working in a Harvester and had to wear a yellow shirt (to go nicely with his ginger hair...) Other material included the paranoia-inducing situation of having the same name as a child in a supermarket whose mother is bollocking him, and DVD porn (with the added bonus of being able to play it backwards). A good, solid set from Chris which went down well with the crowd.

Next on after Chris was a Malarkey debut for Canadian comic Alex Lasarev.

He bounded on stage, pretending to be an American (brash and loud) before revealing his Canadian roots and how they all actually hate Americans: "That's why we wear Canadian maple leaves on our backpacks to say, 'HEY! WE'RE NOT AMERICAN!'" Alex had some fairly sound material (with a couple of sick-ish bits) but any bits where the material was a bit weaker the energetic stage presence effectively disguised it. He even got a round of applause for his Cockernee accent! Slightly reminiscent of Don Dube in delivery style.

After the break came the unexpected bonus of gagmeister supreme, the prolific Greg Cook.

Greg - like always - opened up with new material, including the mingers on Trisha and his defective African grey parrot. The pet shop routine got a few groans but also laugh. In fact a few of the gags fell flat later on during the set - which was a rarity from all the occasions I've seen Greg. However, since Greg is a phenomenally prolific writer of material it was no great loss. A slightly hit and miss set from Greg, but far more hit than miss.

Next on, one of the two headliners of the night, was Chris Cairns.

I was trying to think who Chris reminded me of - probably a fusion of Steve Harris and Mark Langley. He opened up with a few Scouse gags and told tales of his home life (he still lives with his parents apparently) with a decent number of gags throughout. Some of the material was great, with a few adlibs in there, while some was pretty much tried and tested on the comedy scene. It wasn't a bad set but I don't think it was strong enough to headline on its own. Wouldn't mind seeing him compere as he has a confident stage presence and is quick-witted.

Last act of the night was a London comic making his return to XS Malarkey, Cole Parker.

Cole did quite a bit of the material from last time, including a great bit taking the piss out of religion, together with new bits such as turning thirty and camera phones. A few adlibs and some sharp gags, delivered in a boistrous style endeared him to the crowd. All in all a good gig from Cole. A suitable end to a rather good night at Malarkey's.

Spider.