Paul McCaffrey: Name In Lights

It's a pleasant experience to revisit an act a few years down the line and find that they have made an improvement. Thirty-eight-year-old Winchester lad Paul McCaffrey has grown in confidence since his 2011 full hour debut, a rather understated affair.

McCaffrey is now on ebullient form, veering from ingratiating to a little too boisterous (he was apparently called "The Shit" at school, presumably down to this exuberance), and he has found a "voice" that must have served him well during his time as a North London publican. Scorned by his teachers and underestimated by his peers, McCaffrey's conceit is to have his name in lights to prove everyone wrong. He already has a prop and an Edinburgh show to validate him, and the premise thins out as we go along.

Instead of an autobiographical career journey (covered in his first show) McCaffrey stitches together a number of enthusiastic routines where we join him as the comedy underdog on holiday, at the gym, on the golf course and grappling with not drinking. Sometimes they place energy over content, but sometimes he nails a metaphor and cements a comic image. Between an unfocused start and an erratic mess of an ending McCaffrey generates goodwill and momentum that see him through these unsteady bookends. One hopes that the flashes of promise will grow with accompanying banging punchlines, and that his improvement over the last few years will continue exponentially.