Andrew Lawrence bases much of his act on the premise that life is really hard. A typical line from his show at the Brewery last night was: "Life is meaningless and death is on the way."

But he always manages to leaven the mix with either a joke or a sort of weary compliment to the audience, such as" "Well done for participating anyway".

The theatre was, at best, only two thirds full and Lawrence cleverly made the most of this, joking there did not appear to be much to do in Kendal but clearly there was enough that many people felt they did not need to attend his show.

There were many highlights, such as when he criticised the way people like to say how tired they are. "I could sleep for a fortnight, Andrew". "That's impressive - but don't, because technically that's a coma."

And there was applause when he went off one of his verbal gymnastic rants about pay day loan firms, with a string of cleverly constructed, biting phrases tripping off his tongue in a seemingly effortlessly manner - a tremendous skill and very brave live on stage.

The subject manner might be downbeat - but everyone came away laughing.