Civilisation is about to collapse, warned boyish comic Chris Addison.

In an enjoyable and sometimes insightful romp through the history of the last 5,000 years, the self-proclaimed ponce cheerfully outlined the imminent demise of the world as we know it.

The frantic energy of Addison's winding narrative recalled early Eddie Izzard but his ability to combine affable cheekiness with a brilliantly nasty streak was all his own.

The baby-faced Mancunian had no shortage of targets. Pikeys, piercings, Brummies, IT workers, Argos, tattoos, flags, predictive text messaging, the Daily Mail, the no-elbows-on-the-table rule, old people and Natasha Kaplinsky all came within Addison's sights.

Oh, and the Queen too. Addison happily trashed everything English people are supposed to hold dear and by doing so, suggested maybe it was time we forged a new, slightly less ridiculous national identity.

For Addison, at least, the end of civilisation cannot come soon enough.

Precisely what it should be replaced with remained unclear and at times it felt that our infant-comedian was simply indulging in lazy snobbery at the expense of poor people.

But if you want political analysis, you go to Mark Steele or Robert Newman for laughs.

Addison preferred to keep things moving with a mixture of personal anecdotes, flights of surrealism and the occasional rant. There was little interaction with the crowd and the absence of heckling was remarkable, even disappointing.

Perhaps the hecklers felt the young man up on stage was simply too nice to interrupt. Addison has been performing this show since last August and although he managed to keep it feeling fresh, he might have injected a little more topical material into the act.

But in the end Addison's energy triumphed and the audience laughed.