The best, perhaps the only real - test of a quality comedian is to check how your face feels after he has gone off stage. And when DAVE SPIKEY departed following his latest gig on his Overnight Success tour, my face was hurting because I had laughed so much.
Spikey has achieved cult status thanks to his role as cheesy cabaret compere Jerry "The Saint" St Clair in Peter Kay‚s Phoenix Nights series after cutting his teeth on the Northern clubland circuit.
Spikey's 90 minute set reveals just why he proved such a good foil for Kay, both as a writer and an actor, in Phoenix Nights.
The pair share the same brand of observational comedy, an exasperated disbelief at the idiotic things people say and do in everyday life.
Strange things your mum and dad said, misleading hospital signs and dire In Memoriam poems in the evening papers all get the Spikey treatment.
And there‚s a surreal edge to some of Spikey's humour, particularly when describing how his granddad died because a) he had turned into a pasta twirl or b) the ice cream van went by during sex.
At other points, Spikey harks back to more traditional Northern clubland targets Yorkshiremen (who listen to Inbred FM!), Wiganers and London.
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There's also, as you would expect, a healthy dose of lavatorial humour, including what is basically the same joke involving the feeling of men's knackers told twice - but told very well all the same.
But the biggest cheer of the night is reserved for when Spikey does an Elvis and leaves the building, only to be replace for the encores by Jerry St Clair.
Bedecked in a cream jacket and a rakishly loosened dickie bow. "It's me" Spikey confides to a woman in the front row as he launches into the Phoenix frontman's repertoire.
Cornershop will never beat The Saint's truly unique version of "Brimful of Asha" whilst the audience lap up "Corned Beef Hash" and "Come and Get Your Black Bin Bags." Tremendous stuff.
Spikey's support is the likeable Steve Royle and he turns out to be a good warm-up man. He manages the not inconsiderable feat of making juggling entertaining with the help of plenty of swearing, slightly risqué jokes and a rapport with the audience.
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