Traditionally a pick 'n' mix selection of some of the highlights of the annual Brighton Comedy Festival, an uneven lineup that was at times annoyingly generic made it occasionally hard to believe this really was one of this year's Best Of The Fest shows.

Compere Charlie Baker had the enthusiasm and easy charm you'd want from a host though little in the way of decent material.

Bog-standard audience interaction and dull 'quirky' observational comedy set the scene poorly.

First act, Sophie Hagan, at first seemed to purvey cliched 'fat girl' jokes, though her likable awkward manner and casually cutting dark asides showcased why the Dane won this year's Fosters Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer.

Yorkshireman Alun Cochrane took the stage with obvious material (the horrors and joys of parenthood) though performed it with such charismatic gruffness switching into shouty hysteria that this didn't matter at all.

Max and Ivan's sketch show silliness was by turns great (an A Level Geography class reunion was hilarious) and infuriatingly smug and lazy, albeit in an oddly hyperactive way.

Lazy, too, was perhaps the biggest name, Angela Barnes, whose moments of smutty invention punctuated unfunny one-liners, providing an anticlimactic end to a frustrating night.

Three stars