Friday

Tonight K and I are off to see Stewart Lee, Richard Herring, Josie Long and Edward Aczel at Bush Hall in Shepherd's Bush. I ordered the tickets back in January, ridiculously, having seen Herring plugging the gig on Twitter and his blog at the time. It only dawned on me shortly afterwards that the gig wasn't for another 6 months, and all four of these comics would no doubt be gigging loads of times in the intervening weeks. Either way - by the time tonight finally rolls round I'm excited about getting the chance to see all of them. Apart from Ed Aczel, that is, who I hadn't heard of before.

After work I get the tube to Shepherd's Bush and meet K, who has taken the overground from work. We wander around the terrible shiny nonsense that is the new Westfield shopping centre with a vague plan to get something to eat, but with less than an hour before the gig is supposed to start, I'm reluctant to get a seat in a restaurant and risk missing the start - so we squabble briefly before just going to the pub instead. Here we meet up with Ellie and Mike, who are coincidentally also going to the gig. After a couple of pints we make our way down to the venue - which isn't what I was expecting at all. The name had put into my head a "proper" theatre, whereas this reminds me more of the school hall in Crouch End where we went to watch the pantomime at Christmas. No problem, of course - just not what I was expecting.

We grab a seat at the back (unlike the unfortunate 20-something guy with his mum on the front row getting ruthlessly humiliated by Richard Herring - who goes to a comedy gig with their mother!) and enjoy Herring MCing before the first act. I thought it last time I saw him, at the Lyric last year, but it's quite weird to see the guy in the flesh having spent much of the last year or so reading his blog and listening to his various podcasts. It's odd to think how much I actually know about his life and what he's been up to. But then that's the interesting thing about his blog project, I suppose.

Ed Aczel is very funny - if a little hard work - in that his act is entirely made up of him quietly analysing "how to do stand up" and charting the gig's success on a flip chart. I find myself concentrating intently, half-unsure as to whether there'll be any conventional material at all. There isn't; which only makes his surreal act funnier.

The first half of Josie Long's act is in character as a sort of chavvy, East London girl who also happens to be an astronaut giving a Q&A talk on her space adventures. It's a fun idea, but I think she's more fun as herself - and the moment when she breaks character is one of the highlights of the evening.

After another interval, Herring introduces his one-time comedy partner Stewart Lee. Lee's another one I've wanted to see for a long time - though I'm never quite sure why. I loved Fist of Fun (though I still can't quite believe I was in primary school when I watched it) and have been aware of him since, and appreciated that he's definitely one of those "comedian's comedians" who is immensely well-respected within his own profession. I suppose I've always just known he's good. However, I didn't really care for Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle when it was on TV - though the stand up bits were occasionally great I thought the sketches were just unnecessary; and K and I often ended up turning over before it was finished.

Tonight though, it really is exciting to see him. He exudes confidence in his material, even when he's doing his thing of stretching a joke on and on and on - something to do with his grandad liking crisps, I think - and when a woman walks out right at the moment of his final punchline he handles it in a very funny and sarcastic way.

When it's all over it's getting pretty late and I am surprised to find myself feeling really drunk - having a pint in each interval has definitely caught up with me. We head back north and resist the temptation to have a greasy, expensive takeaway in favour of a tasty sandwich back home.