Went to see Daniel Kitson a fine stand up comedian last night, and he was ace. He wasn’t just ace, he was superb... and great... and brill... and just fucking funny as fuck.

I was crying with laughter for huge chunks of the evening, and it was a long set, starting at 8 and finishing at around 10:45 (with a break in the middle of a time specified after extensive discussion with the audience). It’s hard to say what made him so funny, I can hardly remember any of the material (although bits are beginning to come sniggering back to me, last night in bed and this morning on the train) but you could tell that you were watching something that was just that bit better than other things you’d seen.

He was original without being gimmicky. He was at times aggressive especially towards the audience but without ever loosing them or loosing his cool. He was sometimes blunt and almost arrogant about what he thought but always tempered by an honesty and humility that kept you thinking you were watching the underdog. He was refreshingly clear and open about his opnion of other comedians, at one point picking up a flyer from somewhere and ripping into Bobby Davro for advertising his show with the words "leave the kids at home". He described a time when comparing a show in Morcombe he came on after an “borderline sexist, borderline homophobic and openly racist” comedian (wearing a union jack shirt) and exclaimed "I can’t believe you didn’t heckle that cunt!". Then at the end of the evening he asked that none of the audience should go to the new Jongleurs Comedy Club in Leeds because of the way he and others had been treated by the management there in the past.

You have to be pretty good to get away with asking a comedy audience at the end of your show not to go to a brand new comedy club in the area, but Kitson really was that good, and then some.