Martin Beaumont looked like he had just got back from a Caribbean holiday as he stood their in his bright blue Hawaiian shirt. I have an immediate problem with people who try to dress funny; it smacks slightly of desperation and the potential lack of material. However, Beaumont only drew one reference to his state of dress during an aside about holiday travel. He was totally unfazed by the ‘intimate’ size of the audience and was able to strike a quick rapport with them.

He had an amiable nature and interspersed tales of ex-wives with one-liners; some of which were blatantly corny but were received with the same revelry because both sides of the stage knew he knew that we knew that (repeat until fade).

He was not overtly coarse and certainly not crude. He even came across as quite childlike on the occasions he performed a little dance on the spot. Humbly self-deprecating, kind interaction with the audience and a delivery that was quite akin to Eddie Izzard made Martin Beaumont a ‘nice’ comedian.

On a personal note, I thought he looked a bit like Roy Walker. Without the white hair, the Irish accent and shouting “Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight!” every ten minutes. Probably just me though.

The Comedy Club - Crawley - 26/05/2004 - Compere