Best Of New Act Of The Year

Comedy's brightest stars reconvene at the Hackney Empire for this special Best of New Act of the Year show. Six months previously, 16 newcomers battled it out for the prestigious award and now a selection of them are back, topped by the 2009 winner Fergus Craig. One half of radio sketch duo Colin and Fergus, the chubby 'n' camp Craig impressed the judges back in January with his zany accent gags (a German from Belfast and a Chinese Spaniard), his personal take on the film Yes Man ("I'd just end up helping a mate move house") and gross tales of dribbling on the tube. Impressive as he was, the biggest laughs were reserved for third-place David James, who also makes an appearance at this appealing reunion. 60 years old and looking like a bedraggled Des Lynam in a sports jacket, James delivers laugh-till-you-cry, slow-building anecdotes about both the banal (cash-back in a supermarket) and surreal (Mozart's travails at an airport), employing a quizzical pause-and-repeat tactic to extraordinary effect. Also on the bill are the disarmingly dishevelled Seann Walsh (runner-up in January), parody improviser Jim Park, the refreshing teenage girl sketch group Lady Garden, gay/vegetarian-bashing northerner Craig Murray and the rather pedestrian Jason Patterson (all the way from Barbados, via south London - and hopefully a better joke shop). The whole night is presented by stand-up's equivalent of Marmite, the dour roly-poly Jo Brand, who might well get a run for her money from the dead-pan, world-weary pedantry of James, the night's star performer.