Tom Stade

I had managed to muster an interesting little group for my latest trip to my local comedy club - two lawyers and two doctors. Now I had obviously underplayed the merits of the Fox. My little crew, who had never been before, were clearly quite amazed at what a great evening we had. The simple fact is that a comedy club is a great place to go, and given the cost of the presentation (Space, chairs, mike, a bloke at the front), you can have a great level of entertainment for very little money. Here we were with tickets under a tenner and, by London prices anyway, relatively cheap booze. (The timing of the acts is largely based on how long it takes the entire audience to get another round in at the bar. Audience of 120 being served by two bar staff does take a while).

I have never had a bad night here, but this one was particularly good. We had a table right at the front, much to the consternation of the ladies, but were fine.The opening act was a bloke from Sunderland called Matt Reid who I had never heard of before. But much to our surprise he was really excellent. Would have been very happy if he had been the main act. Definitely one to look out for again. Funny and very confident on stage.

Now again, because of the economics, the weak act is the middle of the three, because our opening act was off immediately to get to another club to headline there. Two pay days in one night. The weak act was a chap called Spencer Brown, and frankly he was pretty funny too. One or two really quite good acts. I liked his description of himself as gentleman. "If I take a lady out I like to take her in my arms, and if we have sex, I always offer to pay." But his weakness is he really tries too hard on stage.

By contrast you get Tom Stade. An American comic who, like all the best comics, doesn't seem to be trying at all. Now I am no fool. It takes a vast amount of practice to be that spontaneous sounding. And he doesn't wholly rely on gags, I would struggle to remember any of his material, just that we laughed throughout. Its really just story telling in a fairly self-deprecating manner. I imagine he makes a fair living in this country. At 43 he is hardly a young comic, but deserves to be better known. And I suspect he will be in due course. I am not sure I can see him in an arena, but in a small venue he just owns the place.

But the evening didn't end there. We adjourned to the next door bar which had late-licensing and were there until two am. One of the advantages of being four of you - conversation flows easily with the drink. A really good night out. More please.