Comedy

It’s unlikely that the name Philip Hollobone will ever elicit such a large cheer as the one it received at the opening of the second half of Ivo Graham’s Norwich gig.

Opening the first night of his tour with a two-day stint at Norwich Playhouse, Ed Gamble explains his show’s title is influenced by an incident last January when he and three other comics got stranded in New York because of heavy snow.

This was a gig that could have been created just for Norwich: a storytelling comedian who not only delivered a great set, but asked for notes too.

Tom Allen’s star is on the rise: he is a regular on TV panel shows, the host of Channel 4’s Bake Off: The Professionals spin off, and now on a nationwide tour with sell-out dates – including Wednesday night’s stop in Norwich.

You can have to work hard to impress a Sunday evening audience, but Joe Lycett did just that with this rescheduled Norwich Playhouse show.

For a stand-up show that lasts 90 minutes, Paul Chowdhry delivers astonishingly few actual jokes.