Anyone who has been to a Krater Comedy night at Komedia is likely to have been entertained by Stephen Grant in his role as compère for several years. A likeable enough guy, he strikes you as a meat-and-two-veg comedian; nothing too “out there”, nothing too extreme.

Whether he has slowly mopped up people with frivolous five-minute bursts between other comedians, or aggregated a fan base through relentlessly peddling an hour on the pitfalls of marriage, there were enough people here pleased to listen to him.

You imagine Grant could cut a good children's set if he needed to and I found myself thinking of Timmy Mallet at one point.

But his upbeat nature isn't enough and some gags lacked originality; we've all heard jokes about automated telephone queues and budget airlines. The delivery, too, became a tad trying with just his one setting of slightly over-eager, a bit like a Duracell bunny.

Grant did have his moments, though, and it would be unfair to discount him. His closing pitch, in which he punned in as many fruit and vegetable references as possible, snowballed to a deserved applause.

With a few more undulations to his set in presentation and some subtler pacing, it could grow.

He appears at his strongest, and certainly at his savage best, as a compère when putting a first-date couple to the sword at the front row of a Krater night. And in that scenario at least, less is more.