Jimmy Carr at the Apollo

The Apollo is a million miles (well obviously not as the crow flies, less that 10 in fact) from my local comedy club. Its very professional, 3000 plus audience, soft seats. I have to say I prefer the intimacy of the local club, but then you don't get the big name acts. And some of them are brilliant. And topping them all is Jimmy Carr. He was hilarious. Put it this way, if someone had discovered a cure for cancer last week, that would still only be the second best thing to have happened after this gig.

Now some people object to Jimmy because he goes too far. Of course he does. That's the whole point. He is wonderfully vicious with hecklers. He takes no prisoners. Although my favourite joke came from the audience - "I thought you would be kinder to Christians Jimmy (he is very atheist) - after all their JC was nailed with tacks too."

He does have a go at all the subjects you can't touch except with undue reverence and sympathy - disability, religion, obesity, teachers, under-age sex. And he shows no sympathy. Which is exactly why we like it all so much. And "we" includes Muslims, the disabled (I took my blind Moslem friend), the obese (the lady two along from me didn't so much end the row as plug it) and kids  (to my left were a whole line of teenage boys who were almost wetting themselves at laughter at the teacher paedophile jokes.)

Jimmy's humour is just a very sophisticated version of teenage lad humour. Which is of course the best sort. Because lads are the ones to whom having a laugh forms most of their culture. Sex forms a lot of the basis for the jokes. Like, "if a blind girls says you have the biggest cock she has ever come across, she is probably pulling your leg."

Oh and the other remark I would make is that he is very good value for money. You get more gags (and so laughs) for your buck than with any other comic around. Ace.