Dave Gorman, Reasons to be Cheerful - The Nuffield Theatre, Southampton

DAVE GORMAN promised to spend an hour and a half taking us through Ian Dury's hit song Reasons to be Cheerful and that's exactly what he did.

Gorman explained that the show had come about as the result of two drunken bets.

One was that he could conduct an entire show around discussing Reasons to be Cheerful.

The other was that he could illustrate an entire show with the use of second-hand slides.

He definitely gets top marks for originality and tenacity although sometimes the rigid structure of discussing all 16 verses in order seemed to get in the way of laughs.

That said, in the main the show was very funny and Dave Gorman is one of those people the audience can't help liking. In fact, Gorman has so many fans that not only was every seat in The Nuffield taken but people were also standing.

His semi-scientific approach to comedy, as seen on his TV show Dave Gorman's Important Astrology Experiment, makes such a refreshing change from run-of-the-mill stand-ups that it wouldn't be surprising if he spawned a whole host of imitators.