Don't believe the hype

US stand-up David Cross started his three-week residency at the Soho Theatre with hefty expectations to live up to. His comedy CD, released on once-trendy record label Sub Pop, had been nominated for a Grammy, his fans include The Strokes and Jack Black and, inevitably for a supposedly 'irreverent' comedian, he's been compared to Bill Hicks.

Shame, then, that his publicity is better crafted than his material.

Cross kicked off with a skit about Jesus as a teenager ('I bet he masturbated a lot', sigh) and a bit about how weird it is to leave multimillion-dollar inheritances to pets, before ending up in an unfunny, borderline-homophobic mess ('why do they all speak in that gay voice?').

While we 'get' the Bernard Manning-esque line linking homosexuality and paedophilia was an attempt at PC-baiting ('talking of guys f***ing, what about the Catholic church?'), it just sounded like meatheaded rubbish.

His over-earnest musings on stem-cell research suggest he isn't a complete moron but Cross's stuff, when not lamebrained, just came across as lazy. He's still trotting out his personal experience of September 11, three years after the event and his much-lauded incisive poetical commentary ('most people in this room are more intelligent than George Bush') can be heard at any student bar.

The combination of his unlikeable stage persona - an overgrown undergraduate smart-arse - with his consistently banal material makes this show one to avoid. Don't believe the hype.

Until Aug 28, Soho Theatre And Writers Centre, 21 Dean Street W1, 9.30pm, £10 until tomorrow, then £20. Tel: 0870 429 6883. www.sohotheatre.com Tube: Tottenham Court Road/ Piccadilly Circus