TWO of the hottest names in comedy performed at The Brook in Portswood, Southampton, on Sunday.

Wil Hodgson, winner of last year's Perrier Award for Best Newcomer, kicked off the show with his relentless West Country rant about life as a Care Bear-collecting former professional wrestler.

Original and strangely endearing, it's easy to imagine Wil starring in his own TV show in the future.

Someone who has never appeared on television, despite a stand-up career spanning nearly two decades, was the headline act, Ian Cognito.

The half-Irish half-Italian Londoner is notoriously unpredictable, and his substantial 90-minute act lived up to his reputation. Bounding about the stage, sounding off about everything with a total disregard for the microphone, Ian enraptured the audience with his controversial views.

He is undoubtedly talented, but you can't help thinking that the TV people who are reluctant to let him loose on the box are justified.

He despises censorship and likes to say whatever he wants. Sadly, too risky for television.