A box of stand-up treats ... and a Cherry Ripe

If the opening night gala is the tasting tray of the comedy festival - giving a wee sample of each comic's flavour - then the Big Show is a box of Cadbury Favourites.

The acts are tried-and-tested, but you may find there's one you could have done without. The Cherry Ripe at the bottom of the box ...

And there's always one you wish there was more of.

In this case, that one was London comic Carey Marx, who delighted the half-filled Town Hall with his sharp and smutty humour that left some red-faced but most crying with laughter. Marx is new - and a welcome addition - to the festival this year.

He's more than prepared to push boundaries, following the brilliant logic that if you don't like rude words, you're not going to bugger off and call him rude names, but if you do like rude words, you're going to love him.

At times reading off his hand, Marx isn't the slickest of acts, which only adds to his charm.

Rambling and mischievous, he's a bit like Peter Pan's evil twin, and proved the crowning moment in a night of solid if not seamless comedy, giving the show the extra firepower needed to back up its big name.

Fellow Brit Dan Nightingale delivered steady laughs with a set about drinking and his ex-girlfriend that pointed out some more obscure differences between the sexes, without drawing on typical comedy cliches.

He may have been on dodgy ground with the blokes in the crowd when he suggested rugby union was a gay man's sport, but he had the ladies in fits with his re-enactment of the Sunday morning walk of shame.

Unfortunately, this was followed by another dump-on-the-ex set by Canadian Glenn Wool, which made for a bit too much girlfriend-bashing for one night.

It was double duty for the crazy Kanuk, who arrived fresh from his solo show at the Classic, proving some people do like Cherry Ripe.

Australian Lindsay Webb was the comic glue of the piece, holding the show together between acts, chatting to punters and taking the piss in typical Aussie fashion.

Between the geologist and a German banking analyst (who honest-to-God did pronounce the word, well, the wrong way ... ) the jokes just about wrote themselves. Combined with Webb's infectious energy, it wasn't hard - to steal one of Webb's many geological jokes - to get your rocks off.

THE BIG SHOW
Who: Lindsay Webb (Australia), Dan Nightingale (UK), Glenn Wool (Canada) and Carey Marx (UK).
Where: Auckland Town Hall.
When: 8.45pm, until Saturday, May 16 (no shows Sunday or Monday).
Reviewer: Joanna Hunkin