Encouraging the audience to do impressions of cultural stereotypes is perhaps not the most politically-correct way to start a comedy show.

But Omid Djalili is a man who can carry it off.

Stomping through material where Caucasian comedians would fear to tread, the Iranian comic is not so much a dark-skinned Bernard Manning as an ambassador of hilarity who gets his laughs by highlighting each culture's particular quirks (taking the mick).

So far, so borderline offensive, should you choose to be that sensitive. But Djalili's gift is to make every observation so hilarious and each impression so spot-on that, by having the audience on his side, he makes them forget any concerns that racially-derived material may be unsuitable for today's edgy climate.

After all, if you don't laugh, you'll only cry - so why waste the Kleenex?