The New Comics Showcase, hey? Maybe we need to get a different cabinetmaker, because this one did a pretty awful job.

The night wasn’t a total loss though, as the question of the differences between men and women was answered thoroughly by each performer in turn. I now, at last, know that the differences are: what the sexes wear, how they drive, and their differing views on the sexual act.

Of all the comics who stepped up (there were more than 10 during the night, with five minutes each), young Gareth Moloney got the most few laughs. Jenny Wynter got a clap at the end and a bit of a cheer for at least being confident, if not outwardly humorous.

Watching professional comedians might help this group to understand structure and timing a little better, and perhaps help them to develop a sense of what is appropriate to term as ‘comedy’. Otherwise, perhaps they could give it a rest’particularly the fellow who decided to retell forwarded email jokes as his act. It was not that most of the performers were predominantly sexist, racist or unimaginative; it was the fact that it was all so profoundly uninteresting and dull. If just one of them had perhaps decided to do more than tell jokes about how a section of the audience were British (end of punchline) then I would have been impressed.

If basic humour is what you’re after, often without clear reason or any nuance, then this show is for you.