I HAD very high expectations of this set, I even feared they may have been a little too high. However, I was not disappointed.

Mark Steel, although seemingly part of the comedy mainstream, manages to stand on the outside, providing a funny and original take on the things making the headlines and just about everything else.

His sharp anecdotal style means that it doesn’t seem at all unusual to explain Karl Marx’s theory of alienation through a story about somebody working in an apple pie factory.

But it works. When the audience weren’t captivated by Mark’s obvious passion for lefty politics, they were laughing along to his seeming inability to figure out the world around him.

Although his set was mainly based around making sense of the world when you’re in your 40s, I found, for the most part, I could relate to what he was saying.

But it is a little worrying to think that, at 23, I’m suffering the same level of dismay and confusion as a 40-year-old communist.

I’m going to blame it on Mark’s excellent delivery and ability to rein in his audience.

I left the theatre thinking there was nothing more that needed to be discussed. We had been through it all in a two-and-a-half hour gig. From Subway sandwich stores to socialist politics, Tescos to Tchaikovsky, Mark left his audience feeling just as confused as he is.

Daniel Howlett