Comics get booked-up

Like a real book club, Robin Ince's new comedy night happens once a month. There's also a set text - for tonight's inaugural assembly, Ince will read from Syd Little's autobiography, Little Goes A Long Way - accompanied by the music of Philip Glass.

Unlike a real book club, though, nobody will drink all your booze or force you to read The Da Vinci Code. Ince set it up after despairing of bear-pit clubs where comics feel like warm-ups for the disco. So tonight should see knob gags and crowd control take second place to risk-taking in front of an audience willing to wait more than 20 seconds for a payoff.

With a line-up like this, it deserves to run forever. Perrier nominee Sarah Kendall is joined by The Mighty Boosh's Noel Fielding and The Consultants' Neil Edmond, plus sketch comics such as The Trap, Tom Meeten - perhaps you saw his fine work on the recent Cadbury's Roses advert - and Danny Robins from BBC2's We Are History. Not forgetting the mighty GawkaGoGo, the halfcartoon, half-freak show act that are spoken of with awe by other comics.

London needs comedy nights like this - and with tickets at just a fiver, you know that nobody's in it for the money.

Tonight (then the last Wednesday of every month), Lowdown at The Albany, 240 Great Portland Street W1, 8pm, £5, £4 concs (tonight returns only). Tel: 020 7387 5706. Tube: Great Portland Street

The Book Club