Sean Hughes: Ducks And Other Mistakes I’ve Made

For anyone who has only seen Hughes participate in light-hearted panel quiz shows, this performance may come as a bit of a shock. Alongside caustic diatribes directed at the Catholic Church (including one particularly eye-opening Bill Hicks-doing-Goatboy-style moment) are jibes at himself, his family and the audience, or lack thereof. ‘This is actually a sell-out show, we just decided to put out a hundred extra chairs,’ he says with venom. This is, on the whole, quite funny – his audience interaction in particular shows he has talent for singling out the right comic foils in a (semi-)crowded room. But occasionally the black abyss of Hughes’ bitterness yawns a little too wide; when he berates the audience for offering only titters instead of full-on belly-laughs, you want to suggest that maybe the fault is to be found with the material, not the crowd. But then, he would probably eviscerate you for saying it.

Gilded Balloon Teviot, 622 6552, until Tue 19 Aug, £14--£15 (£12--£13)