Sausage Night 3 - Battersea Arts Centre

A comedy night with a free sausage sandwich thrown in - what could be more appealing?
Tonight was a fundraiser for the BAC, which seems to have been under threat from the local council for as long as I can remember - this is the third in an annual charity series - so at least three years I guess...

The Arts Centre is a funny place, we are shepherded down the side of the building and through a hall resembling somewhere I used to have scout meetings, up back stairs and along corridors which felt like a primary school. The Grand Hall itself had plastic chandeliers and a flat floor with rows of some of the most uncomfortable chairs I have spent time with, perhaps explaining why there were two intervals.

Robin Ince was an affable compere and did a good job of getting the crowd focused after the intervals, he is difficult to dislike without being a must see act. The first section consisted of two sets from Ince and the gay American comic Scott Capuro who had to go to perform elsewhere later that evening.
He was hilarious but incredibly close to the bone, taking in the gamut of racism, sexism, homophobia, paedophila bestiality and anything else in between. "It's a bit too early for me isn't it" he smirked at one point.

The second section introduced Josie Long who did a very brief set, she is another likeable and entirely off beat performer who I felt maybe tried to be too mainstream for the benefit of the audience, which I don't think she needed to do. Disappointing that she wasn't on for longer though, and the same could be said of Never Mind the Buzzcocks host, Simon Amstell, who seemed to be looking for an excuse to get offstage almost as soon as he was on it. He apologised for trying out new material on us and when it ran out scarpered. Now, some of it was funny, but quite why he couldn't have mixed old and new to extend at least for 15 minutes escaped me.

The final section was two powerhouses and two of my favourite comedians.
Stewart Lee told us about his recent endoscopy and explained how Joe Pasquale is a thief, while Mark Thomas told us about his record breaking new hobby of demonstrating in Westminster.
Neither disappointed with excellent, well balanced sets that had the audience rolling. Lee in particular had the crowd from the first sentence and kept them laughing for the whole half hour with his brilliant delivery.

Overall it was a good night although I was particularly disappointed with Amstell and thought the overall organisation could have also done with a bit of work.
Decent Sausage though.