Seymour Mace: Squeg

Basing half an hour of your show on topics the audience suggests means that, obviously, some days work better than others. Unfortunately this particular day, while a perfectly genial way to spend half an hour, didn't exactly blow the roof off Stand 2. Combining whimsical tangents, homemade fans and cartoons drawn by Mace himself (a definite highlight) the material he has prepared is odd but pleasant, delivered in an unintimidating, funny-guy-down-the-pub style.

The suggestions from the audience are patchy, however, with Mace mining strong stuff from a couple of people, while struggling with the others; it's rarely a good sign when a comic has to resort to telling people to fuck off for laughs. It's also rarely particularly funny. However, he's a likeable guy with some seriously amusing doodles of bizarre contexts and strange scenarios; it's a shame the audience participation section drags so much. But that's the point of the hour as he himself announces at the top- it's not prepared, it's not tightly written, it's just a guy having some fun with people in a room.

By the end, everyone's chipping in- we learn a new riddle, a woman tells us she's from Newcastle- and while Mace keeps the conversation fairly interesting, you can't help feeling you've paid for jokes. So where are the jokes? Riffing may be an exciting concept, but when there's not much to riff from, it just looks lazy. And there are enough quality moments to hint that when this works, it works well. Today, it doesn't quite work but, thankfully, the weirdly wonderful cartoons and Mace's charm just about rescue it.