Review by Steve Bennett

With fewer punters than bar staff, this was never going to be a storming show.

Introduced by a thankfully brief, unnamed compere reading some of the weakest 'jokes' you've heard from messy scraps of paper, this basement gig is designed as a showcase for two very new stand-ups.

First up was Edd Case, a Cockney thug character with a pun-laden set. His opening routine about inadvertently sounding aggressive while using such fighting talk as 'do you want some?' in innocent situations was OK, but no better and quickly became predictable. From then on the gags got increasingly weaker, as he got increasingly louder.

Peter Kerr was more promising, though still with plenty of faults.

He paced nervously around during his political rant, which proved quite off-putting, and his ideas never seemed to gel into properly-formed routines or jokes.

Simply repeating a well-known, but inherently funny, news story - such as the angry mob who targeted a paediatrician rather than a paedophile - is not enough in itself, the idea needs to be developed. And that was a trap into which he frequently fell.

He was watchable, though, and his heart is in the right place.

But neither he nor Edd Case are at a stage where they can carry even half a full-length show. It's an ambition beyond their talents

Review date: 1 Jan 2001
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett