London is good for a laugh

Showstopper Adam Hills

By BBC News Online's Chris Summers

The first London Comedy Festival has got off to a flying start with audiences being treated to some of the world's top comic talent in advance of next month's Edinburgh Festival.

London claims to be the comedy capital of the world and its discerning and intelligent audiences are deemed by many comics to be the best way of gauging new material.

The London Comedy Festival was seen as a chance for comedians from all over the world to sharpen their comic teeth before the trip to Edinburgh.

On Monday night two very different artists - Dan Antopolski and John Moloney - tickled the funny bones at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith.

A new take on 'knock, knock'

Antopolski is a gangly and thoroughly modern comic whose work combines a variety of electronic gadgetry.

John Moloney: A class act

One of these is the "video door", an updated version of the Knock, Knock routine which depends on perfect comic timing.

Antopolski is a talented ad-libber and knows how to work an audience but he slipped up at one point when the crowd demanded a punchline at the end of an oft-interrupted shaggy dog story.

With Moloney there was no gadgetry or stage props. He is just 60 minutes of full-on stand-up in the style of Comedy Store legends such as Ben Elton and Alexei Sayall.

Moloney, a former teacher who clearly has painful memories of being tormented by brats at school, is a class act and Edinburgh crowds will lap it up.

Antipodeans

His act is hilarious, but also extremely explicit.

Let's just say you won't see him on TV - even Channel 4 - until he drops his Queen Mother routine.

On Tuesday night it was on to The Walkabout in Shepherd's Bush for a night of Down Under Comedy involving acts from Australia and New Zealand.

With its most famous comedic exports being Paul Hogan and Mark Little, the omens were not good.

But it was a fantastic night with a superb mixture of Antipodean talent.

First up was Trevor Crook, whose humour is as dry as the Australian Outback and his punchlines as devastating as an Aussie batsman.

Cultural differences

Crook, who is so deadpan he makes Lester Piggott look animated, was the first comic of the evening to mine a rich vein of Anglo-Antipodean cultural differences.

Marty Wilson also played on the Australian stereotype - laid back, lazy, uncouth but able to beat the Poms at any sport they care to event - with great success.

After the interval Sarah Kendall gave the night a female perspective but she was eclipsed by Kiwi Brendan Lovegrove.

Lovegrove's self-deprecatory style was brilliant and his scattergun gags had the audience eating out of his hand.

The final act was the peerless Adam Hills, who rounded off the show with some superb musical jokes. They included a reworking of Deutschland Uber Alles (to the tune of Nena's 99 Red Balloons) and Advance Australia Fair (to a backing of showtunes from Grease).

It was great stuff and the crowd, by now fairly inebriated, loved it.

The London Comedy Festival lasts until Sunday 29 July.