Sean Hughes, Greenwich Theatre

The presence of an ellipsis in the title of Sean Hughes’ new show, What I Meant to Say Was..., is a clue to how the evening proceeds. He comes on stage with no announcement, chats for 90 minutes about this and that, rambles a bit when he loses his thread and frequently goes off at a tangent when he interacts with the audience. He even tells us he always talks rubbish for the 15 minutes and the show proper will begin after then.

On first sight then it looks unplanned and rather disordered, but Hughes is a sly old fox. Because behind his casual appearance and seemingly shambolic delivery is a keen comedic mind, and he slips in some very sassy material - about his irish Catholic childhood, his anger at his heroes selling out ("Johnny Rotten selling butter?") or not having the required response to Comic Relief - among the more anodyne observations and anecdotes about everyday life before anyone has the chance to be offended. And if they are, he assumes his winning hangdog expression and is straight back to safer territory.

He’s 43 and single, he tells us, and much of the set is devoted to how depressed Hughes feels about growing old. Now somebody full of woes flirts dangerously with bringing the whole room down, but the comic is sufficiently self-deprecating to avoid that trap. He won the prestigious Perrier award on his Edinburgh debut in 1990, and some of his funniest material is about finding himself now doing bit parts in shows such as Casualty and the new Miss Marple (“I’ll let you into a secret: she solves the crime at the end”), or watching other comics get the big stadium gigs - and when it comes to the inexplicable success of Michael McIntyre, I’m fully with him. It’s not bitterness, just difficult to get one's head around.

And just when I was thinking the evening was rather disjointed, Hughes brings the whole thing together in his final riff when he makes reference to every member of the audience he has chatted to. So even if my mind wandered a few times, his clearly hadn’t.

Hughes was appearing at Greenwich Theatre as part of the inaugural Greenwich Comedy Festival, founded by two locals, Will and Cass Briggs. The brother-and-sister team certainly know their comedy, as their stepfather, the late Malcolm Hardee, founded Up the Creek 20 years ago and they have attracted stellar names, including Phil Nichol, Ardal O’Hanlon, Arthur Smith and Rich Hall.

Up the Creek, one of London’s most famous comedy clubs, is one of the festival venues and the others are the Royal Observatory, Greenwich Picturehouse and the grounds of the Royal Naval College. At the last mentioned, a large tent has been erected, there are barbecues and live music as well comedy, and the whole enterprise a welcome addition to the capital’s late summer arts scene.

Greenwich Comedy Festival continues until September 13. Information
Sean Hughes is touring until November 26. Book tickets online