Arnold Brown presents Jokes I Have Known

Of all the comedians to have played a part in the early eighties' alternative comedy boom, it is the unfairly sidelined Arnold Brown whose comedic persona and political ideals have remained most strongly intact. At 73, his performance offers no indication of having lost either his knack for timing and the precisely placed pause, or his charmingly defiant adherence to political correctness.

His first set of the evening is as good as stand-up gets. Comfortable with his well-worn material, the performance is structured so that when the audience isn't laughing in anticipation of Brown's leisurely delayed punchlines, it's caught out by abrupt anti-climax and unexpected call-backs to earlier routines.

Perched atop a stool, Brown's main set is an anecdotal summary of his three decades in show business. Essentially a means for the former accountant to present choice material from throughout his career in context, the set touches upon his time in the Comic Strip and his encounters with Bill Forsyth, Dustin Hoffman and Frank Sinatra. The jokes still work, but the show perhaps lacks the narrative drive required to bring it a fully-satisfying sense of cohesion and purpose.