Return of the stand-up comedy series, once again guest-hosted after Jack Dee bowed out for series 3. MICHAEL MCINTYRE compered for this opening episode, proving once again that he's easily one of the best comedians on the circuit today. Joyously enthusiastic, he skips around the stage, merrily dispensing his gags with an endearing child-like glee. It's very easy to relax whenever he's on-stage and he has some excellent material – from the awfulness of shopping at Argos ("it's like bingo, but you win what you've already paid for"), Geordie linguistics (all vowels sound like "euh"), the cleanliness of a Geneva toilet, the joy of being the lottery's "voice of the balls" in real life (at a petrol station: "pump number seven -- that’s the fourteenth time I've used pump number seven this year!"), the search for a pen when taking someone's number on the phone, etc. Superb. 
The first guest was American stand-up RICH HALL, who lives in London and is an award-winning regular at the Edinburgh Festival. For me, and many other people, he's more familiar as a regular panellist on Have I Got News For You? and QI. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from Rich, as he's never really tickled my funnybone on TV before, but he was actually a pleasant surprise. His deadpan delivery and insight into British attitudes as a foreigner were very enjoyable ("when a Brit snaps, you don't even know they've snapped"), while I always like comedians who tell stories -- and Rich had an amusing tale about being "commanded" to Buckingham Palace for an event. He also interacted with the audience quite well, and you could tell his set had been polished over time. It's something of a cliché for an American stand-up to poke fun at the War On Terror, but Rich had some funny lines and ideas – likening Osama Bin Laden to Lex Luthor or Colonel Sanders in the minds of Americans.
Finally, Welsh comedian RHOD GILBERT took to the stage, and his incongruent delivery was difficult to adjust to after the endearing McIntyre and the nonchalant Hall. Gilbert's gargling Welsh accent and sledgehammer style was often too grating. Mind you, he did have some fun ideas: the ridiculousness of a torch with the power of a million candles, the difficulty in buying a duvet because of unfamiliarity with the Tog-rating system, and his real-life experience of flying into Kabul for a gig and being unable to use his phone because the Taliban might hack his contact list and call his mum. Unfortunately, Rhod had a tendency to bludgeon his good ideas to death, so they sometimes went past the point of comedy and into irritation.
28 November 2008
BBC1, 10.35pm
