★★★★

THERE are moments of real bite in Ross Noble’s stand-up these days, with his two-hour sets no longer just platforms for surreal meanderings. Thursday’s performance actually made the title of Brain Dump seem unsuitable in fact.

While there were still wondrous stretches in which the audience continually had to remind the comedian where he himself was heading with a particular tangent, others veered closely towards scripted sketches.

Obviously discussing them out of context makes them sound the very opposite of hilarious – but a skit on bees/Bruce Forsyth (“I’ll be dead soon”) and another on getting intimate with a dolphin had the room gasping for air.

Better still were the moments when Noble fought back against a seemingly endless tirade of stag do heckles from the back and a few woefully misplaced borderline racist barks from two ticket holders nearer the front. Such moments prompted him into a newer, political territory, giving a chance to air his views on Brexit and more. These stood out as real sparks, something approaching rage.

Whether planned in advance, truly adlibbed or just a knee jerk reaction to dubious audience comments, it peppered up Noble’s usual absurdity smartly.