Newcomer Ross Ashcroft has an effortless, confident air and a sackful of performance skills that ensure he gets the audience in good spirits - even it is with such simple pantomime call-and-response banter as urging: ‘All the ladies go “coo-eee”’.

Behind that engaging manner, the topics are fairly mainstream and well-trodden, contrasting men and women, telling how his posh accent is a hindrance on the streets, or recounting anecdotes that could be prefaced with the good old-fashioned set-up like ‘My girlfriend’s so thick that….’

The material he’s got at present isn’t going to rock anyone’s world, at its lowest ebb descending into simply repeating football chants or cracking easy jokes about Camilla Parker-Bowles’s looks. Yet he’s got the right tone of voice, an enjoyable stage presence and an underplayed charisma – things which are hard to fake, yet crucial for stand-up success.

The jury’s still out on whether he can write his way past the more obvious observational material he’s currently peddling and put that naturally funny persona to better use, but he’s got the delivery side of the battle won.