Mostly Herring and Hayridge.

Tonight’s Mostly Comedy was another great gig and a lovely way to see us into our summer break.

150 people watch Hattie Hayridge at tonight's Hitchin Mostly Comedy.

The bill this evening consisted of Hattie Hayridge, Richard Herring and us, with Richard previewing his new show ‘Oh Frig, I’m 50’ in the second half. While I always enjoy Richard’s stuff, tonight's show was one of my favourites, even at this stage, managing to tackle the topic of his fifth decade on the planet in a typically silly, sometimes thought-provoking and often brilliantly pedantic way. I’m always impressed by his extraordinary work ethic and the quality of the content he consistently puts out; there aren’t many comics that throw so much into what they do so constantly, which clearly has gained him a lot of respect from his fanbase, who were out in force in Hitchin tonight (as was clear by the volume of their RHLSTP shout-out when he name-checked the podcast in his set).

Hattie was also on great form and was very well-received, getting perhaps her best reaction at the club. She’s such a nice, genuine person who’s very laidback, and was a great counterpoint to Richard, not to mention another instantly recognizable face to share the bill; it was an exceptional line-up and a pleasing echo of the last time Stewart Lee played the club, when he shared the bill with Red Dwarf’s other Holly (and Mostly Comedy regular) Norman Lovett.

Glyn and I kept our set brief at the top of the first half, with me also doing a solo set (as I did last night) that was taken from the new show. It was good to do this both nights, as the more I try my new routines, the more I grow confident in where the laughs are and am able to solidify the material as free-standing sets. It’s pleasing that the new stuff is being well received, though there’s still a fair amount to be done to improve the show itself, particularly towards the end. Hopefully I can iron this out over the next week. At least Glyn and I can approach Mostly’s month off happy in the knowledge of a great first half of the year with some excellent line-ups. Now all we have to do is confirm bookings for September to December; no rest for the wicked. It was also great to see a lot of positive feedback on Twitter, but the best tweet was undoubtedly this: