Murphy's Malarkey final night - bit of a strange one, with the atmos being slightly subdued, but still, a good laugh was had by all.

First up on stage was Darren Gold, who's played the gig a few times before and always goes down well with the crowd. Interestingly, his brother, a photographer for a newspaper (sorry, I forget which, but I have a sneaking suspiction it could be the Manchester Evening News) came along and took plenty of photos (Owen Rankin's reaction was particularly amusing). So hopefully a bit of publicity for the club there...

From that point the fantastic and perpetually-pissed Jason Cooke took over as compere due to Toby having a gig over the road in Studentland to provide a beer tab for the comedians and door staff. Which was nice.

Next up was rising star and local lad Des Sharples, possibly the only person I know from Trafford who's a City fan - nice one! After much amusingness with his tandem-based tales of woe from his youth, the next comedian was Susan Vale - I could be wrong, things were starting to get a bit hazy from this point on...

At this point, and indeed throughout the evening, the crowd seemed more subdued and sombre than usual - maybe because it's the end of an era (but the start of a new one, don't forget). Possibly because there were quite a few new people in who weren't sure what to expect.

Anyway, next on, I think, was 'Tall' Dave Thomas with much innuendo- and dope-based hilarity. For anyone who wasn't sure which one was Dave, he was the one with a more than passing resemblance to Bez. Click on Dave's link (above) to go to his page and you'll see what I mean.

Then after a quick five minute set from the hastily-squeezed-in cheeky chappie Dominic Woodward, Manchester's very own 'badass muthafucka' and all-round top bloke Owen Rankin made an appearance in his 'wicked threads' - and doesn't the photo just say it all?

Finally, after Owen Rankin came the hilarious Smug Roberts, arguably one of the finest comedians to have appeared at Murphy's Malarkey. He was introduced by Toby who had dashed back from his gig in Studentland in front of about 20 people (but he still managed to storm it).

After Smug berating the crowd for being quiet (and rightly so if you ask me) he suggested we all piss off to Bar XS for a pint and to declare the new Home of Comedy in Fallowfield. What was even funnier is that he suggested we all ask for half a Stella - the bar staff gave some strange looks.

He then proceeded to stand on a table and announce, without the aid of a microphone, to the entire pub that the comedy started next week. There was one tosser at the bar who tried to mouth off - obviously hasn't learned that you don't heckle Smug - but he'll soon learn when Toby has his way with him. Er, but not in that way, obviously.