Stephen K Amos

... or Stephen "the K" Amos as he was introduced for the second half of his act which was in essence his "More of Me" show from the Edinburgh Fringe. Amos is very much at ease with letting his audience know exactly what's going on in his show.

Indeed, he's very much at ease full stop. After a brief warm up slot from a guy called Graham who was quick-witted and got the evening off to a good start. Amos arrived on stage with the audience ready and willing to laugh. Much of the first half is interaction with the audience, or at least a few hand-picked members of the audience (Dean from Braintree, a guy about to get married and a 13-year-old boy whose parents had bought him along to the gig, probably because it was cheaper than a baby-sitter) who then became part of the act almost throughout.

In truth, it wasn't a sell-out gig and too bloody cold for stays to come wandering into the Arts Centre on the off chance that tickets were still available but Amos knew some of the audience who had travelled to see him (one guy seemed to be a "friend" from MySpace who was taking clips on his phone, which will presumably turn up on MySpace some time). And he's worth travelling to see for the seeming effortlessness and warmth of his act. It was a different kind of crowd -- more attuned to stand-up rather than the usual Radio 4 crowd we get.

Maybe the smaller numbers made it more intimate, which works perfectly for the show's second half in which he talks about his upbringing, racism, homophobia, making the TV show Batty Man (which is up for a Bafta) and appearing on EastEnders with Rudolph Walker, the actor from Love Thy Neighbour, the show which taught all young white kids that calling people "nig-nog" was acceptable. (Not at our local Primary School, I might add, as the nearest to an ethnic minority we had were the kids from Little Waltham.)

The whole thing ended on a sing song which rounded off a fine evening.