Andy Zaltzman: Satirist for Hire

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As his own hype man, Andy Zaltzman excels. While his sell-out Stand III crowd file in, the 40-year-old satirist and Sideshow-Bob-alike serves up some wonderfully stilly announcements, informing us to dispense with our carrier pigeons as well as our mobiles, and to send in in our heckles within a certain time period. So, great then: we are on for a reminder of why John Oliver's erstwhile comedy partner is also a whip-crack topical gag writer. Not quite.

Unfortunately the conceit of his show, that audience members email in a subject that they want him to lampoon—bespoke satire—strangles any real flow. Even considering that this is the opening night (though the show has previously had runs in London), the kinks are inherent in the format. The risk is that Zaltzman has to deal with some rather niche questions, such as the merits of baseball over cricket (a topic featuring quite heavily in tonight's show) and Belgian waffles over potato waffles.

Though Zaltzman quickly segues to prepared material, the momentum is erratic and this is compounded by him being unrehearsed. At one point he makes two jokes with the same punchline in quick succession. For the last part of the show, he is literally against the clock to fulfil the requisite number of requests and the show ends up as a bit of a puddle of loose ends. Zaltzman sheepishly acknowledges this. It's been a hugely disappointing hour from a hugely engaging talent. It's death by format though, and he never really stood a chance.