Gavin Webster: Tyne Theatre and Opera House, Newcastle

IF you think football fans are fickle ("Rafa will definitely keep us up") then comedy fans are even worse. The comedy fellow traveller will pay a fortune to see, from 100 yards at an arena gig, some safe, unchallenging darling of television who has a team of writers.

Thank goodness then for Gavin Webster, an uncompromising Geordie who has honed his talents for 30 years and isn't afraid to tell it like it is. Hailing from Blaydon, now living in Wallsend, Webster rails against the system while drawing great comedy from the people around him.

With a superb delivery, Webster's show never looked scripted. Indeed, it bordered at times on the anarchic but he was able to constantly keep it on track by inserting a killer gag when it could possibly have become too loose.

The first 20 minutes comprised the scattergun jokes and foibles that have seen him become a favourite at comedy shows nationally when he's sharing the bill with three other comedians. But an hour-long show has to be sustained and for the next 20 minutes there was new material that combined observational with surreal. It flew by in a torrent of laughs.

The final 20 minutes was tried and tested, and greeted like an old friend: the ghost that turns up at the wrong house; the thug who always has a harder brother; and a song (Webster is an accomplished banjo player) about a sexual position that just becomes a series of noises. It brought the house down.

Ed Waugh