An Evening With Mr Paul Foot

Darkness descends and the pre-show introduction gets existential relatively quickly, and then Paul Foot — the eloquent madman with the mullet — is actively among the crowd, getting rather up close and personal at times, as he spends 30 minutes running us through the show we're about see, via tangents on the contemporary relevance of Prussia seguing into the inanity of Pierce Brosnan's alleged plans to open a cockerel sanctuary (complete with compelling impersonations of roosters contemplating mortality). Then things get weird.

An evening with the masterful UK funnyman entails fabulous flights of fantasy, and with this show being a 'greatest hits' set it's accordingly rife with comedic gold. Despite the constant mayhem and cerebral acrobatics it's well drilled and tightly scripted, Foot's trek through his disturbances, fantasies and madness (his terms) all perfectly surreal and silly in equal measure. Bisexual interloper Penny is borderline terrifying, but the music accompanying Foot's gibberish pledge of loyalty to Australia to close proceedings is so rousing and patriotic it makes one wish the lady in the front row hadn't broken his talismanic horse's head. Guild Of Connoisseurs for life.