Brilliant Harry hill gig at the Hammersmith Apollo last night. This was a show that I reviewed two weeks ago but it was so good I decided to see it again on my night off. Nobody mixes old-school vaudeville and new school surrealism as well as Hill and after a lengthy period away from the stage he was madder and more magnificent than ever. There have been lots of stand-ups doing gags about the Olympics over the last year, but Hill (picture (c) Andy Hollingworth Archive @andyholl) is the only one whose entire final section was a homage to Danny Boyle's Olympic Ceremony. Except with sausages and Stouffer the Cat instead of Ken Branagh and the Industrial Revolution.

I can only think of one thing that could have improved it. For some reason Hill's stage set was geared towards one side of the auditorium. His two-piece band was on that side, the mattress that he likes to jump on was placed on that side. In the middle of the stage was Hill's trombone (for his Bond themes) and prop-laden work-table and there was nothing on the other side of it. Hill did a lot of banter with the audience and most of it seemed to be addressed towards one end of the stage.

At times it felt as if he was playing the gig to a single block of seats on one side. We could hear him on the other edge of the stalls where I was but sometimes it was a struggle. One person I spoke to in the interval sitting further back on my side felt that he had missed 30% of what Hill was saying. I quoted a gag on Twitter last night and I may have got it slightly wrong because of the acoustics*. Luckily the other 70% was pure brilliance and a lot of the inspired gags were visual, which everyone could see, but it did make me wonder if anyone had pointed this out to the production team. The former GP has done this show over fifty times and I would imagine the set-up has been the same throughout – it was certainly the same at Hammersmith two weeks ago.

I'm no stage designer or sound technician but it surely would not have been problematic to shift everything across the stage a bit to give everyone in the auditorium an equal view. I see a lot of comedy gigs at the Hammersmith Apollo and there was a time when the venue was frowned upon as being too big for stand-up a few years ago, but with the growth of Arena comedy the 3000-seater Apollo suddenly seems positively intimate.

And comedy shows do normally work well there. I was on the balcony for Louis CK recently and while there was not much to see apart from a middle-aged man in a T-shirt the sound was pin-drop perfect. Other performers really know how to fill a space. I've seen Al Murray's Pub Landlord at Hammersmith and he totally owns the venue. It is big but the audience is close enough for him to pick mercilessly on bankers and IT workers in the front few rows.

Dara O'Briain has also been on storming form at Hammersmith when working with the crowd, although having seen him there a few times there was one time, when it was being filmed for DVD I think, where O'Briain also seemed to be playing to one side of the stalls. I wondered if Hill's show was set up with filming in mind, but there were no cameras in last night. I assume the gig has been filmed for DVD on tour and I bet it will look fantastic.

All of this is not to say it ruined my enjoyment – the show builds and builds to a truly unforgettable finale – but I did think it spoilt the enjoyment for some of the people further back on my side of the stalls. I'm sure there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for the stage set-up and if I can find it out I'll update this piece. I was just hoping someone could explain it to me. Maybe it is superstition? Maybe it is habit and the way Harry Hill likes to perform. Or maybe the show needs a director? If he doesn't already have one maybe Harry Hill should get Danny Boyle in.

*I don't usually quote gags but it was the last night of the tour and it was a topical gag about Margaret Thatcher so I doubt if he will be doing it regularly over the next few years.

**If anyone wants to contact the promoter about their experience on Thursday their address is as follows: 

Phil McIntyre Entertainments Ltd, 3rd Floor, 85 Newman Street, London W1T 3EU