New night set for punchy delivery

The Great Eastern Hotel has added comedy to a varied roster of arts and music events at its popular GE Club.

Tonight is the first of the twice-monthly Sabotage night, humbly described by its promoters as "designed to supercharge your belief in live comedy with a big comedy punch in the face". Happily, the line-up suggests there could be an iota of truth in the hype.

Tonight kicks off with a group of stand-ups well worth catching: geeky and talented Paul Kerensa, unpredictable Dan Antopolski and brilliantly funny Irish night-owl Andrew Maxwell. If the latter does any of his set from his last Edinburgh show, which featured a riff about a desert kidnapping and other nocturnal scrapes, he'll have you in stitches.

The night comes with assurances that this is no flash-in-the-pan event riding on the wave of post-Edinburgh enthusiasm: word from the hotel is that the aim is to create a "longstanding event that wasn't all about music, art, or fashion". Entertaining comic-animator Howard Read and offthewall comic Paul Foot, former Perrier and Perrier newcomer nominees respectively, are due to crop up on forthcoming evenings.

Further promises include some fun plasmascreen action, comfy chairs, cocktails and DJs - hell, you can even stay overnight if you're willing to stump up the cash for a room.

Sharon Lougher Tonight, Great Eastern Hotel, Liverpool Street EC2, 7pm to 2am, £5. Tel: 020 7618 5000. Tube: Liverpool Street