Russell Brand, Mark Thomas and Guests
Carling Apollo
***
Satirist Mark Thomas certainly assembled an impressive bill for last night's fundraiser to fight for the re-opening of a corruption inquiry involving arms company BAE Systems. If the complex case hardly had tickets flying out of the door, the attraction of Russell Brand guaranteed a sell-out.
But before the big-haired headliner there was a formidable supporting cast. Simon Amstell gets better every time and was on superbly sour form, worrying how to live ethically if his favourite trainers are made by cheap labour. Josie Long delivered a contrastingly cynicism-free riff inspired by her inability to get into a bar, eventually proving her maturity by admitting she liked olives.
Ed Byrne opted for a winning anti-US stance, Omid Djalili skilfully worked the crowd, while old hand Mark Steel struck gold with his 2012-knocking routine: "We were only given the Olympics two years ago and we are already three years behind."
In the mercifully shorter second half, Stewart Lee and Robin Ince both delivered peerless gags. Mark Thomas suggested more people would vote if there was a "comments" box on ballot papers and Phil Nichol, sharing compere duties with Jo Caulfield, pulled his jeans down and got more laughs struggling to pull them back up.
Finally Russell Brand swaggered on. Though not the funniest act, he eagerly engaged with the issue, explaining it after confessing that he had struggled to grasp it himself. Then, for balance, he returned to more familiar terrain of rakish tales of drugs, orgies and shoplifting before surprise guest Bill Bailey closed with a James Blunt parody that hit its target more accurately than any stealth bomber.
