"JOB!"

Richard Thomson An absolute belter of a night tonight, despite the fact that headliner John Bishop couldn't make it, and starting off the night, making his XS Malarkey debut, was Scottish comic Richard Thomson.

Richard got the night off to a great start with some good gags, and a few visual mimes as well (including the guy off the Gay Exchange advert). There was material about porn - okay, not exactly original, but it was well executed (even managing to crowbar a satirical George W Bush gag in there). He had a very confident stage presence and looked very natural on stage.

Dominic Woodward Second onto the stage, trying out some new material, was Malarkey regular Dominic Woodward.

Dom started off with a couple of bits of old, reliable material just to get the show off to a good start, then went into some new stuff, including scallies (and the fact that they don't even realise they're scallies) - there was a great bit about a scally and his scally girlfriend arguing in the street. Other material included media hysteria about asylum seekers and the idea of us sending a scally to France every time they send us an asylum seeker. And the moral dilemma of fancying a scally bird with a nice arse. He finished off with material about going for job interviews and wondering why they haven't standardised Pool rules. A lot of new material and 95% of it got a great response. Nice one, Dom.

Dave Purdy Next on after Dom was the Godfather of Manchester comedy, Dave Purdy.

Dave was on fine, fiesty form tonight, putting energy and aggression into his performance (a trait which earned him the title of Best Of British 2003 in the Frog & Bucket competition). From modern art on Mars, to badly behaved schoolkids on buses, to modern Job Centres, Dave steamed through his material with aplomb. His is the kind of act that makes audiences sit up and listen (mainly due to the energetic delivery). The timing was spot-on as well, especially in the bit about buses. There was also some new material about music as well, so a great gig all round from Mr Purdy.

Freaks Outing After the break came the main support act of the evening, musical and character comedy act Freaks Outing.

Freaks opened up with the Ollerton Miners' Yorkshire Rap which was getting laughs before he even started the song (as he was donning his miner's overalls). Good start. From there on he did the Death song (one of my favourites) featuring a tap dancing Grimreaper (and a bonus bit of mirth when he got tangled in the mic lead). He finished the set on a song about sexual deviation wearing... well, you can see for yourselves in the photos! All in all it was a good set and a great performance - just a shame he left out the song, You Little Bitch. Oh well.

Freaks Outing Freaks Outing

Dan Nightingale Headliner of the night, filling in at very short notice for John Bishop who couldn't make it was regular Frog & Bucket compere and shiny child, Dan Nightingale.

I'm not sure if Dan felt he was ready to headline XS Malarkey's, but fuck me with an angle-poise lamp, he blew the roof off, proving to be a more than adequate replacement for John. Half an hour or so of finely crafted tight Nightingale gold, with the obligatory audience banter, nicely topped off a night that was an absolute cracker with every comic on great form. If only it could be like this every week.

Spider.