Cheltenham Town Hall

28 March 2008

Dave Spikey He worked in the NHS for 30 years so Dave Spikey has plenty of funny stories from his hospital days to make a stand-up show about.

But his Best Medicine routine not only included daft tales from the world of medicine, but also funny headlines from the Gloucestershire Echo, the stupidity of song lyrics, holiday fashions, memories of growing up in the north of England and the uses of Cillit Bang.

The Phoenix Nights and 8 out of 10 Cats star packed three hours of material in to two hours and it was all hilarious.

It was often difficult to keep up with him as he spoke so fast - reminiscent of when his Phoenix Nights character Jerry St Clair accidentally took too many pills before he went on stage to call the bingo.

But with a constant stream of gags the Town Hall was in fits of laughter throughout the show.

It's amazing to think that stand-up is relatively new to Dave Spikey who only broke through to the comedy world when he was in his 40s.

Someone this funny should have been spotted much earlier.

Daniel Pountney