Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

At 81 Renshaw Street, local comedian and University of Liverpool graduate, Alastair Clark brought an intelligent and ambitious hour of anecdotal stand-up on the theme of the difficulties and conflicts caused by opinions.

The show itself was a stand-alone project and a pre-cursor to his future endeavours which include an upcoming hour long Edinburgh Fringe show. His future audiences can look forward to a confident dead-pan delivery of extended deconstructions of unique political and social observations. One highlight was when he took a thread of Youtube user commentators to task for their misguided and hilariously knee-jerk argument on the page of The Doors’ classic song L.A. Woman (“At this point the web site user weighs in with their view- I’m sure we can trust that to be objective.”) He is at his best here when pitting his wearied rationale against the inane vacuous nature of bad lyricism.

There is also a vulnerable honesty surrounding his thoughts on political apathy which authenticates the material and builds a healthy trust between him and his audience.

Joe Munroe supported with a half hour set of his individual style of very funny musings which included how to wind up the R.S.P.C.A., calling young children’s bluff and messing your kids up properly (Munroe asks why we would just bring up a child to be mildly shy when we could make them irrationally scared of sheep?)

This along with the comparing and top magic skills of Dave Alnwick gave this intimate and varied show’s audience value for money and, though it was a little unpolished in parts, there were genuine nuggets of comic brilliance- a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Toby Hall