Chris Addison at the Queen Elizabeth Hall

He gave us a good long show, but started by using the foulest language, calling us fucking fuckers and so forth, and I realised that the effect of this abuse was to make us nervous, so that we would laugh nervously - it's just a tactic. Not at all funny. The audience was sophisticated and mainly of late middle age. I think we were hoping for witty political analysis - I know I was. I was disappointed.

Not only did he tease the middle class audience, which went down very well as they recognised themselves in his references to Farrow and Ball paints, picking blackberries and Waitrose, but he also targeted the most ignorant class, and the latter was a problem for me as I don't like to laugh at people less fortunate than myself.

I think a lot of people felt like that. There were sectors of the audience who didn't like the trivial stuff Addison was dealing out, and I think the obscene stuff about the man playing with his dick went down particularly badly. When a man is in his 20s and is talking to students he can do this. Chris Addison is now 41 and a parent. It is a completely inappropriate a) activity b) talking point. This is a man who simply doesn't  know 1) how to be an adult 2) how to do an act as himself. His act seems to be borrowed from all the other stand-up comedians, especially Michael MacIntyre, and I particularly noticed that in his references to "camp". At one point I recognised something he had borrowed from Alistair McGowan - who is a very talented mimic, whereas Addison is not.

He had a London audience who are, as he recognised, intelligent and educated, and he had a chance to talk about anything he wanted, and he chose to talk about cleaning his computer with his dick.

Gradually we got to know the guy, and he just seemed like someone who liked to remember himself as he was at university. Those were his times, and in spite of his great successes as an actor in good TV series, he hasn't really found himself since.

His comments on our political elite focussed on the appearance, voices and backgrounds of the personalities. These are things they can't do anything much about. It would be a better idea to criticise politicians for their effectiveness or otherwise where change is actually possible.

He ended with some good points about the necessity of having real debates instead of saying "Sorry, that's just me. End of." As though the speaker had the power to settle an issue by being pig-headed. The four of us all agreed that this was a good point about something irritating, increasing and plain wrong.


Addendum: The Guardian reviewer wrote that Addison targeted "the poor". I think of them as the ignorant. Often they turn out to be quite well-off. But generally, the Guardian reviewer and I agreed, though he's not such a prude as me, of course, and he gave Addison a grudging 2 stars, warning him if he carries on like this he's likely to lose his audience.