Gina Yashere, Udderbelly, SE1

In the game of musical chairs that has led up to their coverage of the soccer World Cup, BBC and ITV executives appear to have missed a trick; judging by last night’s explosive opening few minutes, in which Gina Yashere gave an expletive-laden analysis of England’s opening draw against the United States, the comic would be a whole lot more entertaining as a pundit than some of the mealy-mouthed ex-professionals they currently employ to tell us where it all went wrong.

“Fucking England! Butterfingers for a goalie! How do you save a goal before letting it in? I reckon his wages have just gone down by 40 grand a week....” And on it went, in similarly hilarious vein - and this from a woman who professes neither to know nor care about football. Born in London to immigrant Nigerian parents, Yashere is also supporting Nigeria (who were beaten 1-0 by Argentina) in the tournament, and she gave some equally astute analysis of them - “They’re all fucking showboaters. There’s 11 strikers who all want to show what they can do with the ball but won’t pass it.” There followed a very funny mime of the goalie refusing to handle the ball in his area, preferring instead to dance the ball up the field.

After getting that out of her system, and neatly filling the time before the England-USA match (being shown on large screens directly outside the venue*) ended, Yashere went into more of her old groove. She interacted a lot with her ethnically diverse audience, finding a mixed-race couple in the front row who had been together for several years but weren’t married. Who had cold feet? The woman wasn’t too keen on spending money on a wedding, it turned out. “Invest a bit of money to get half of his, woman,” came the reply, quick as a flash. And where did her family come from? Jamaica - comedy gold for Yashere, as she gave a knowing look to the audience. “Is it that you worry at the wedding your bloke will be exposed to your family in all its.... Jamaican-ness?” The black members of the audience howled.

It’s fair to say that even nowadays in a city that wears is multiculturalism with pride, a white comic would struggle to get away with material like that. But Yashere knows her audience and it’s done with not just knowledge of all she surveys, but a huge degree of affection too, and there was certainly a lot of laughter of recognition among the crowd.

Last night’s show didn’t have a title and had the feel of something put together as she went along, but it was no less enjoyable for that. Yashere is marvellous in audience interaction, can make any number of subjects - including casual racism, owning animals and hair products - funny and I could have happily listened to another hour or two of her energetic comedy. There was only one dud note, a reference to the Cumbria murders that was ill thought-through and came out as neither insightful nor funny.

Yashere has been missed on the stand-up circuit for the past few years while she has been appearing on British panel shows and carving out a career in Hollywood. She is, however, doing occasional dates this year in the UK, US and India - catch them if you can.

*Note to Udderbelly organisers: showing live (and very loud) World Cup coverage in the bar area immediately outside the auditorium is both distracting for the audience and disrespectful to the performers. Please sort it.

• Gina Yashere is at Udderbelly tonight
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