"Don't clap - that joke's not going to work in Edinburgh."

First act of the night tonight was Liverpudlian comic Jamie Sutherland.

Jamie is quite new to the comedy scene (it was only his 8th gig) but has already developed a confident stage presence, slightly reminiscent of Bill Woolland (not just because of the accent). He started out with a couple of gags based of familiar comedic material (George Bush and Big Brother), followed by a story about his lack of success at the Frog & Bucket's open mic night, Beat The Frog. After that came some neat observations about fire precautions (or lack of) at petrol stations. His material in general is quite solid and his delivery is good, although I've seen him get a better response than at this particular gig. I don't think the crowd were particularly warmed up before he came on. Plenty of potential though.

Next up, making her return to XS Malarkey, was Jojo Sutherland (no relation to Jamie).

Much of Jojo's material was to do with being a mother, with a few deft punchlines scattered throughout, which got a reasonable reaction with the crowd (took them a while to get into it though). Easy-going, laid back delivery (although with an undercurrent of filth), Jojo regailed the crowd with anecdotes and gags aplenty. The only problem about the set in general is that it is pretty much based around being a parent and may tend to alienate certain crowds (an example of this was when she asked the crowd if there were any parents - there were none). But the delivery couldn't be faulted and given a slightly older audience she'd go down a treat with them.

Third on, making something of a comedy comeback after some time out from the comedy scene, was Caroline Jones.

Caroline started with a few gags from the set she did when she last did comedy, followed by material about having kids and periods (a pattern developing here), but with a more self-deprecatory stance. The funny (ish) thing is that a lot of it is based on the truth. Overall it was a pretty good comeback gig (well, I think she had done a couple of gigs prior to XS) but the delivery was too rushed in places, probably down to nerves. One of those sets where the laughter was more polite than genuine.

After the break the main support of the evening arrived in the shape of Manchester comic John Warburton.

John immediately opened up with some new material, a tune on the acoustic guitar called The Apathy Song, which was brilliant in the sense that most people in audience would agree with its sentiments. The spoken material consisted of call centre workers, fat kids doing P.E. at school, amongst others. He did another song which he'd written so recently he had to keep the words Sellotaped to the mic stand, a spoof song about Animal Hospital (there were one or two cock-ups but it was still funny). Good to see the Warbster back with some new stuff. A comic that's going places.

Headline act of the night tonight, performing his Edinburgh preview Game On was the irrepressible Patrick Monahan.

Pat's show in Edinburgh lasts about an hour and tonight was intended as a preview and rehearsal for it. Needless to say much of it was banter rather than material from the show. Still funny but his producer probably wouldn't have been very happy... Still, he did more material from the show than he did at the Frog & Bucket a couple of weeks previously so it's getting there. He went down as well with the crowd as he always does (i.e., very well indeed) but I'd have liked to have seen more material from the show.

Spider.