Mikey Adams, Tom Craine and Andy White at Pleasance Cabaret Bar

Despite a rather chilly and steady start Master of Ceremonies Mikey Adams did a decent job of ad-libbing some humour into an almost deserted Pleasance Cabaret Bar.
The atmosphere might have been described as pin droppingly tense to begin with, but after some coarse but desperately welcome Scottish humour I was able to uncurl from my protective foetal position and applaud the introduction of the first act.

Bristol’s own Tom Craine brought a loveably school-boy set to the stage which wasn’t short of anecdotes from his victorious crusade on an episode of ‘The Weakest Link’ specifically for up-and-coming comedians.

His excitable demeanour, resembling a child O.D.-ing on sugar, was the adrenaline injection into the heart of the still on-the-fence audience that was so desperately needed.

Craine continued to amuse, but never overwhelm, in a consistent and almost predictable, but highly entertaining fashion. 

After another brief interlude from Mikey Adams Andy White was announced. This was the point at which the success of the night was sealed in my eyes.

White (a dead ringer for The IT Crowd’s ‘Moss’) tore up the sparse gathering of students with humour which bordered at times on the obscene but always induced the right reaction, this included the simulation of an erotic encounter between Rolf Harris and Louis Armstrong, which, he claimed, explains Rolf Harris’s obsession with the absurd, rhythmical breathy noises he is so fond of making.

He brought his set to a close with a bit likening the Big Brother House and the omnipotence of God, suggesting that in the competition between Barabbas and Christ “Who Goes? You’s decide”.

Both comedians were not at all phased by the undeniably skeletal ‘crowd’ and produced fantastic material which has cemented my desire to return to the Cabaret Bar for more.