Jonathan Ross withdrew from Friday’s annual Great Ormond Street Hospital fundraiser due to sickness, which was sad for him but a relief for the audience.
The bill still featured over 20 stamina-testing acts. Another one could have been the last straw.
Longer sets from fewer guests might have helped. One wanted more from smart acts such as Michael McIntyre, Romesh Ranganathan, Sean Lock and Trevor Noah, while others struggled to hit their stride in 10-minute slots. Even the usually excellent Jack Dee battled to build momentum.
It was left to the female comics to make a mark. High points were Sara Pascoe’s excellent riff on how the world would be improved if all women walked around naked and Katherine Ryan justifying her rapid rise up the ranks with a volley of smutty asides worthy of Joan Rivers.
But the evening’s relentlessness eventually became tiring. When effervescent Irishman Jason Byrne joked that the best way of making a woman happy was to lift her up, one could not help thinking that the gig could do with a lift too.
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As final act Rich Hall started an overlong gag about the diminishing returns of America electing yet another Bush, there were echoes of the diminishing returns of shows featuring too many comics.
Occasionally great on stage, hopefully this will look even greater on television after C4 has edited out the dull bits.
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