Gerry Howell

Chortle student comedy award-winner Adam Hess initially seemed to have caught the gig’s lethargy, too, but it wasn’t long until his nervy, convulsive delivery kicked in, giving a distinctive edge to his quirky one-liners. The gags come quickly, and he virtually batters the audience into laughter.

Putting more enthusiasm into the gig was Madam Galina, the oversized ballet diva played by Iestyn Edwards glissading along the line between cajoling and bullying as he put some audience ‘volunteers’ through their paces. It’s more gameshow-style fun than carefully crafted comedy, but the prima donna does does inject some much-needed fun into the night. Kudos, too, to the victim who injected some humour of his own into the piece – even if bossy Madam Galina doesn’t like to share the limelight.

After the interval came Gerry Howell, who tells us he’s been away from the circuit for a while. His rambling, scatterbrain style used to always draw comparisons with Eddie Izzard – so it didn’t help when he started talking in hesitant schoolboy French, given Izzard’s own adventures in the language. But he soon settled into his own voice. Unfortunately, this is a little long-winded, with a lot of unnecessary guff around the subjects as he repeatedly pats his breast pockets in a strange nervous tic. Like Perry he has strong punchlines, and the laughs that do come are hearty ones, but they are too well-spaced.

Finally, Mark Allen, who hosts a regular comedy quiz called The Humble Quest For Universal Genius, the bastard child of QI and Shooting Stars, combining genuine knowledge with a strong sense of the absurd. Here we got but a short sample of a show that normally plays out over an entire evening, so the pace wasn’t quite right, but we all learned something about both peas and history while enjoying the light-touch shenanigans.

But overall this probably wasn’t the glorious showcase that this fringe deserved. There are some fine under-the-radar shows coming to the Three and Ten over the next couple of the weeks, as the big boys play the main comedy festival down the road, yet the gala didn’t really capture the best of them. Check the intimate venue’s listings for more.