"Daddy got booty..."

First up tonight was a comic who has played XS Malarkey a couple of times before, Paul Betney.

Paul's material was largely the same as on previous occasions, featuring the fact that he shakes a lot ("I don't have multiple sclerosis - I only have one."), but it's quite well done. There are other bits of material throughout the set but it invariably comes back to his 'disability'. There are some great lines in there but I wouldn't mind seeing Paul branching out a bit, material-wise.

Next on, trying out some new material, was XS Malarkey stalwart Dominic Woodward.

Dominic first tried out his material about extras on DVDs, which, while not completely new material, was certainly recent. It went down well with the crowd, either way. From there it linked into stuff about his mum, and his auntie's schizophrenic son (one of his personalities being a steamroller - bizarre). There was a great gag involving using haemorrhoid cream for bags under the eyes (full marks for including the word 'rimming'). It's probably the sickest gag I've ever heard Dom do! From there he went into car insurance, passing his driving test and the perils of using a mobile phone whilst driving, before finishing off with a great story about going swimming with his girlfriend. Overall a good set which worked well, and should be even better when any rough edges are ironed out.

Third on in the first half of the show was one third of the spoof German performance art trio Die Clatterschenkenfietermaus, Ben Traynor.

Ben's material ranged from sending spoof letters into his local paper, a sarcastic look at the Mr Men books, the financial implications of loving carpets, and a particularly good bit about how to wind up born-again Christians with a crap story about how they found God ("I left the beans on for about half an hour and thought they'd be burnt - but they were just right! That's when I knew there's a higher purpose."). Probably Man of the Match for me (and Toby, for that matter). His dry, laid-back delivery is perfect for surreal sarcasm. Excellent stuff.

After the break came a return visit for Sunderland-based double act Mat and Faron.

Almost reminiscent of Jay and Silent Bob Matt took over speaking duties for the majority of the gig. They opened up with a brief introduction followed by a great song about Irish stereotypes (the songs probably being the strong point of the set). Matt's cheeky demeanour won the crowd over. Some of the material was a bit rambling and wasn't that strong, but saying that there were some excellent lines in there, particularly the stuff that was near the knuckle in parts. All in all it was a good, strong set, up to main support standard.

Tonight's headliner was one of the best adlibbers I've seen, the high-energy and somewhat cheeky Russell Howard.

Russell immediately went into banter with a few members of the crowd and seemed to have that knack of effortlessly blending it into his material so you could barely detect the seams. It would be interesting to find out how many of tonight's adlibs were genuine and how many had been used before (when the opportunity presented itself). Whatever, it was very well done. Material-wise, it was solid enough for a headliner, without being outstanding, but it was the banter which stood out. He did a long set as well so the audience really got value for money. He'll be back soon, I'll wager.

Spider.