... so I said to the pub landlord ...

Al Murray

... well still feeling fragile I saw Al Murray at Richmond Theatre. It was an amazing performance as it was just himself on stage. He was very clever in picking on members of the audience and from their names or jobs building up whole routines. He kept back to his targets throughout his act. His act is based on the twisted logic people have after having downed quite a few and being over patriotic. For example he was annoyed at Brighton for building the pier - as it made England closer to France.

So there was this guy called Max, who - to his surprise - ended up being told he was a World War Two Spitfire pilot - or that he wanted to be a pilot but the RAF wouldn't have him - later on he got blamed for being one of the few in the 'Battle of Britain' - as the rest of his pals were off hunting foxes - so they should have been the many - and the war would have been over quicker.

Because of his name - Roland - a pub manager got stereotyped - first as running a wine bar and not a pub - and then he kept on making gay references to him - such as working his way through the front row he saying man, man, woman, man, woman, woman and - er - Roland.

Another clever part of Al Murray's act is description of different people, by sounds, rather than words, such as one Scottish accent being like having your private parts rubbed by a shammy, or another high pitched creak of a door, or how the scouser's accent was used in the war to destroy German communications.

He was also very topical saying that as we were now friends with the Germans that Iraq had agreed to take over the role - he praised them for their attention to detail by having a dictator with a moustache. There was also a couple of fairly drunk firemen in the front row and he kept giving them digs - such as they should get the 40% pay increase - but they should have to deal with 40% more fires.

I was very impressed that he controlled the audience for at least two hours. He interacted well with individuals and was very topical in his material. He has also completely rewritten his act of two years ago.