Jack Whitehall @ The Lowry, 24 Feb

The man christened ‘King of Comedy’ at the 2013 British Comedy Awards was honing his material on Monday night prior to embarking on a big arena tour in March. It’s undeniable that Whitehall has excellent comic timing and charm coming out of his ears but tonight, however, his set proved a distinctly hit and miss affair. There are plenty of great lines scattered about, but a surprising number of tired references and forced jokes too.

There’s no harm in comedians feigning exasperation or confusion for comic effect – plenty of greats have performed acts where they go out of their way to appear befuddled and out of their depth – but when Whitehall does it here, for example, when he gets embarrassed over not being able to nail specific accents, it just seems extremely unnatural, like an actor delivering a performance rather than a comedian doing a routine. Meanwhile, cheap bits mocking ‘hoodies’ and commenting on Wayne Rooney being stupid all seem pretty tired for a comedian you associate with being young and ‘of the moment’.

His stage persona, though, is still undeniably endearing, based mainly around his unavoidable poshness. It's a well he draws from on several occasions – with considerable success.  Anecdotes about him getting recognised at the doctors and struggling with toilet doors on trains go down well, and his observations on the British obsession with free stuff prove particularly funny. There’s also an ongoing joke about his unwavering love of The Lion King, which he revisits on several occasions to great effect.

Maybe it’s just that he’s still working out which bits to leave in when he does his tour proper next month, but there was far too much filler involved in tonight’s performance, which is a shame given his obvious ability to charm and engage an audience. It was an enjoyable enough set, but not what one might expect from recently crowned comedy royalty.