Review: The Comedy Store Tour

"If you want to do stand up comedy - just do it," said the host Fred Macaulay.

Easy for him to say, because he's very successful at it - appearing on Have I Got News For You and just about every other panel game on TV.

For the four hopefuls wanting desperately to win a place at London's Comedy Store, it was a little more difficult.

They made a good show of it, though.

The first of the four contestants at this regional heat was student John Hamblin, dressed in a waistcoat and black tie as if going to a funeral. He was.

Mark Rough, a Saltaire-based Geordie whose material lived up to his name, was next. He was likeable and confident, though - although possibly his confidence came from having his jokes written on his hand.

The two hits were TJ Murphy and Anthony J Brown, and the judges - of whom I was one - were split as to which to send on to the London final.

Brown was laconic to the point of horizontal. "I got the Elephant Man out of my local video store yesterday. He was upsetting the other customers."

Murphy was a true original; an observer of life in a mac and trilby, and it was he who finally got the vote.

For most of those present, however, the stars of the evening were the professionals, and especially the 1995 Perrier nominee Simon Bligh. To see him is to realise just what an art stand-up truly is.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.