Andrew Maxwell

A couple of local punters perhaps expressed it best at the end of their 2 for 1 visit to Andrew Maxwell’s 2012 show. ‘He wasn’t as good as last year.’ ‘Aye it was a bit childish.’

Certainly, there is always a fair bit of playground mocking in a Maxwell show, usually at individuals (John Terry, the Duchess of Cambridge) or groups (Team GB, conspiracy theorists) who might need taking down a peg or two, but the themes that he confronts are never less than fully grown-up.

A Maxwell show is never less than endearing, though there is a brief moment of palpable tension just after he recalls being heckled by a drunk Jewish woman about some contentious material on Israel. A voice from the darkness pipes up to say that he knew the woman in question but the Dublin clown handles the interjection sensitively and soon he’s back on more solid ground, discussing his three favourite nationalities: the Irish, Scots and Americans.

As has become Maxwell’s modus operandi come August, That’s the Spirit is a round-up of the year’s news with plenty of decent stuff about the Olympics, the Eurozone crisis and racism in football, but it feels as though he’s in (his own) overly familiar territory with an elongated tale about US rednecks.

Assembly George Square, 623 3030, until 27 Aug, 9.05pm, £15--£16 (£14--£15).