Norwich Playhouse

Norwich Playhouse

Tall, lanky, the liberal in corduroy, Marcus Brigstocke he treated us to a comic style that was a cross between a chat in your own front room and a loopy, clowning schoolboy winding up the teacher but impressing his mates.

His targets were mainly predictable - Labour and Blair, George Bush, terrorism, air travel, transport, the French, Jamie Oliver, Daily Mail readers, Scots and the EU. Material on the Olympic Games, children and TV adverts was more unexpected, but some of the religious and/or racial gags fell flat.

While parts were hilariously funny, others were puzzling - why not sing the song that was threatened throughout?

The audience question and answer session that passed for an encore added little. People posed such off-the-wall questions as would you go to space? Is Ron Atkinson a racist? But then again, weird comes as normal on comedy nights!