Paul Pirie: Lettuce Pirie

Paul Pirie nearly fucked the pooch before he'd even started when he made that tooth-grindingly irritating claim so beloved of mid-level managers and overweight ironic-cape-wearing first-year students everywhere: “I'm bloody mental, me.”

Luckily, the rest of his set picked up considerably from that point. Pirie has a lot of charm and natural wit; his set clatters along at impressive pace, and while his observational comedy isn't exactly searingly original, he has the confidence to go off-script when he needs to and his great delivery turns even the more predictable jokes into belly-laughs. Even when he runs slightly dry, it doesn't matter too much: it's enough fun just to see him throw himself around the stage with idiot abandon. It's clear he was enjoying himself as much as we were.

Pirie's been doing the Glasgow circuit for a few years now, and he was only playing to about 20 people tonight. It's a shame; he deserves a bigger audience.