Gay comedians, and specifically gay comedians whose material centres on their sexuality, aren't known for their comic subtlety.

So when the audience sat for an hour's onslaught from American comic Scott Capurro, who describes his brand of humour as "homoneurotic", we were resigned to an evening of titters and feigned outrage.

After all, the London-based stand-up's gags about the holocaust and the Queen Mother have prompted audience walkouts and indignant newspaper headlines from Melbourne to Edinburgh - and he lived up to expectations.

His insistence that Madonna and AIDS are in fact the same thing ("they both emerged in 1981, they both feed off the gay community"), and the announcement he quite fancies Jesus were designed to shock, tuning into that part of us which finds things even funnier if we shouldn't be laughing at them.

Considering Capurro is such a polished and engaging performer, he relies too much on camp rhetoric and shallow taunting.

Acerbic, clever and with bags of charm, it seems a shame to waste it on a tired formula.