Rich Hall

With a speaking voice placed somewhere between Tom Waits and one of the Simpson family, and a pissed-off expression on his face, you expect Rich Hall to be just another in-yer-face American comic, with attendant tales of fear and loathing.

However, it's all a tad more European than that as Hall brings some welcome depth and width to his material.

Off-beat in an acceptable sort of way, his material is original if not exactly fluent and abdundant. Some early stuff about geography, helped along by his on-stage prop of a map of the world, had a lot of promise but ended up going down a cul-de-sac.

He fared a bit better when talking about newspapers, sho wing a few deft touches along the way.

There were some longeurs such as when he unwisely and somewhat incomprehensibly, began playing a keyboard with lyrics that may or may not have been improvised but he began to kick in a bit halfway through when he reverted to more orthodox practices.

As he warmed to his themes he found the best responses of the night.

He's the sort of performer who relies a lot on audience interaction, which can be a bit tiresome at times, especially when he doesn't know when to stop, but there was enough on evidence here to suggest that he has some fairly robust material and a sharp and incisive comic mind.