Rachel Mars comes from a family who love to tell jokes. It's only logical, then, that this desire has filtered down to her.

However, those expecting a laugh-a-minute show were to be disappointed; this was more an examination – a bizarre homage – to the art of joke-telling.

Granted, there were times when the audience was in fits of hysterics (such as when she explored the puerile theme of breaking wind) but to get to that point we had to absorb stories of Aids sufferers and how her Jewish family received the news of relatives who perished in the Holocaust. Moments such as these made for an unwelcome mix of suspense and disquiet among the audience.

They were examples of studying humour and identifying how laughter can be the result of relief.

Admittedly, they were used to comic effect later on but I felt, in a way, the audience was being toyed with.

Using a paying audience as your subjects requires either a crowd of jokers or those with robust, inquisitive constitutions.

Mars combined anecdotal tales with video breaks, musical passages and interludes of mock-up emotion counter to her imaginative and amusing persona as stage comic, no doubt sharpened by recent forays into stand-up.

Worth a go, if not for the laughs but an insight, perhaps, into why people love to laugh.