Matt Kirshen - Keep Smiling, Matt. Just Keep Smiling.

I wanted to hate this show from the start. A pretentious title and Matt Kirshen’s inevitably grinning pint-sized personality do not promise a particularly thrilling evening. But Kirshen manages to dispel these feelings pretty much from the get go as he launches into a fast-paced and well thought out performance.

Kirshen has recently returned from new found celebrity in the US - where he was a contestant on reality TV show Last Comic Standing and thus missed last year’s Festival - and it is his experiences in the country that provide most of his material. He may announce early on that Americans aren’t stupid, but that doesn’t stop him using many of America’s less intelligent people and practices for comic effect.

Some of his best jokes concern Scientology and Judaism, not exactly hard targets, but he does so from hugely entertaining angles. The only thing that really holds the show back is the manner in which it is all delivered. You can’t help but think Kirshen has studied a lot of comics and his performance is such a fine example of good stand-up practice that there’s nothing about his style that really marks him out from the rest.

But that is a minor quibble. Kirshen’s material is first class and all well observed and weighted. His enthusiasm is infectious and both this reviewer and the crowd couldn’t stop laughing if it wanted to. It is lucky that, as Kirshen bemusedly points out, he didn’t bring enough of “it” to Last Comic Standing. If he had done he might not have been able to make it this year either.