Following on from my visit to Wicked Wenches on Tuesday, I returned with company with Sheila and three mates for the Thursday night extravaganza again at the number one comedy club The Stand Edinburgh.

The club was packed out with a variety of ages, nationalities and outlooks long before the wee Glasgow firecracker that is Susan Morrison took to the stage as our hostess for the night.

Susan is in her absolute element as the compere, she garners information about the crowd, identifies ‘targets’ for the later acts and generally warms up the crowd for the fare to follow.

The first comic to hit the stage was Scottish comedy writer/ director/ producer Phil Differ. Although he is a well known name in Scottish media terms, this was the first time I had seen Differ doing stand-up. As a slightly more mature chappy he did a fair amount of his set being self deprecating about his age and memories, but all with a style and presentation that was stamped through with class. Throughout his set Differ entertained one and all and for most he finished all too soon.

The first interval followed and then the first of two second section acts, Glasgow based Northern Irish born Elaine Malcolmson. We have seen Elaine quite a few times over the last year or so, and she has become one of our absolute favourites. She has her own inimitable style, standing there looking very vulnerable, almost like she shouldn’t be there, but then comes out with wicked dead-pan humour that really hits the mark. Okay a little we had heard before, however as most were seeing her for the first time and it was all new to them, she went down exceptionally well, I know my crowd thought she rocked, and who am I to disagree?

The closing act of part two was Gordon Southern. I have been a fan of this excellent comedian since I first came across him during Fringe 2006, however it was the first time that the rest of my gang had come across him. Southern is always entertaining, and has a well crafted set the times I have seen him, and although I had seen his 2009 Fringe show, all the material on offer was brand new to me. More power to him. He also showed the ability to be able to deal with the obligatory drunks celebrating a birthday and bimbos who thought texting was the thing to do while sitting on the front row of a gig. His cleverly constructed, well delivered and extremely funny set of twenty minutes or so was way, way too short. One thing I know is Sheila was so impressed I might have a struggle to get Fringe 2010 reviewing ticket for Gordon’s show.

Following the second interval and prize draw, Susan introduced the headline act Noel James, a new name to me as well as most others in the club.

Welshman James was completely different. His self-deprecating style, one-liners, and numerous groan inducing puns soon won over the crowd, as I felt like me, most were initially unsure. I think he did a good job, and I’ve been able to add another name to my list of those to check out in the future.

So once again, another first class night at the Stand. Check out the future dates at www.thestand.co.uk.