There is no doubting Russell Howard can work a crowd. The 33-year-old has been a familiar face on our TV screens for years and the fact he’s embarking on a multi-stop national tour suggests he is doing something right.

His humour caters for the ordinary blokes, geezers and lasses across the country and doesn’t fail in making the lads laugh and the girls giggle.

But, as seen at the Brighton Centre on Monday night, there is only so much juvenile hip-thrusting and wacky mother imitations one can take before it all gets a bit tedious.

What he does well is found away from the pub jokes, which included how a middle-aged lady came up to him in Brighton and revealed that if she was 30 years younger, she would “ruin” him – impressions and all.

Instead, witty and intelligent cracks at the concept of religion (Russell told us he’s an atheist), a tale of how he’s been beefing up in the gym following death threats from the English Defence League (more impressions, but this time funny) and a touching but hilarious finale story about a child fan’s recovery from cancer proved order of the day.

Russell is clearly an intelligent man and his work has no doubt earned him a nice fortune.

But in future tours, seeing him move on and develop from his comfort zone of lad-humour could prove even more lucrative.

Russell Howard returns to the Brighton Centre on Sunday, March 30. For tickets, call 0844 8471515