After the showboating of Da Funk, George Lewis was a bit of a come down. Not because he was unfunny, but because he was the first conventional male stand-up of the night. Lewis was clearly very good, the only thing that was holding him back was that he looked a bit like Jon Richardson, sounded a bit like Jon Richardson and had a bit of Jon Richardson’s nerdy pedantry about him. Then again I find Richardson very funny and I thought Lewis had something too. 

Joe Jacobs was another fairly conventional stand-up, but younger and hipper, with a lot of decent gags about the horrors of office life. Jacobs still seems to be finding the right voice for his talents. I’ve also come across him as a rapper doing different material. Whatever he does is always funny and entertaining, it just lacks that extra something to make him a must-see act. I think he is going to get there at some point but tonight wasn’t his night.

One good thing about this competition was that there was not one act who came on and did the comic cliche about saying who they resembled. So it falls to me to say that Angus Dunican felt like a cross between Hugh Laurie, Griff Rhys Jones and also Jim Sweeney (google him or ask your dad). In fact there was something decidedly retro about Dunican. With his jacket and T-shirt and slightly spikey hair he felt like he had just stepped out of the Comedy Store in 1987. His material, some of it inspired by his posh upbringing, was strong and effective but not distinctive enough. Maybe I’d seen it all before (about 25 years ago) or maybe there was just strong competition on the night. Or both.

Luca Cupani closed the second half with the same sort of high energy charm and confidence that won him So You Think You’re Funny? In Edinburgh in August. He was instantly amiable here as well, as the innocent Italian following his dream in London. His jokes are good and persuasive and he has such a rhythmic delivery you are smiling even before he gets to the punchline. Yet he was up against a tough line-up and didn’t get a placing.

Richard Herring’s hosting made the night fly by, but when the third section opened the energy seemed to dip for Nigel Ng. He started slowly but gradually built up some comic momentum talking about how coming from Malaysia and living in America he was described as Asian, but then arriving in the UK he was no longer “Asian” as that was already taken. His delivery was calm and gentle but his material did pack much more of a punch than it first seemed. 

Going back to the lookalikes trope Olaf Falafel has probably learnt to live with being described as Tony Law’s taller twin brother, although judging from recent pictures Law has now shaved off his elaborate beard so that comparison will no longer work unless the Swedish stand-up shaves off his face fuzz too. Falafel opened with a gag that I could see coming a mile off, but he delivered it so well it got his short set off to a flying start. His main riff was about replacing astrology with biscuitology – you can tell a lot about a person by the type of biscuits they like. Falafel is like a chocolate digestive – very moreish. One of my favourites in the show, but unplaced.

As is the case with most competitions these days, nobody died on their arse, but for a moment Jethro Bradley came close. Apparently he was strong in the heats but onstage in front of a full house an early gag failed to land and nerves momentarily seemed to get the better of him. But he glanced at the notes on his hand, glanced again, took a deep breath and turned things round. His deadpan, rug-pulling style was pretty good. The writing could be tighter but he left the stage with some laughs under his belt and his dignity intact.

And finally Jamie W, whose act was certainly different to the previous thirteen acts. Jamie’s schtick is that he is a so-bad-he’s-brilliant comic, somewhere between Ed Aczel and Steve Coogan’s Duncan Thickett. Jamie ran around the stage and rattled through every style from observational comedy to impressions. There was no chance to be bored but there weren’t the big laughs he might have hoped for either. A worthy finalist though, whose act was maybe a comment on some of the deluded wannabes in the heats who did not make it to the last 14.