The well disposed audience that packed Mighty Mighty last night (Wednesday) gave The Imposters a good hearing, laughing out loud at good material well delivered empathising happily with the occasional stuff-up, and simply falling silent when it went beyond the pale.

If anything the technically inept opening – botched fanfare, mistimed lighting – won sympathy for MC Noor Razzak (it’s his real name, I’m told; I’d thought it was a play on Noah’s Ark so looked for the metaphorical significance … duh). Born in Baghdad, raises in the USA now resident in NZ, he trades well on his cultural heritage.

Equally, and to some extent oppositely, Dave Cormack mines his Jewish heritage for material, revealing an intelligent, enquiring mind with the requisite humour genes intact. But he’s way too loud, too close on mic, for the small space and the technical operator does nothing to mitigate the problem. Then he loses his audience with a bad, and old, paedophile ‘joke’ followed by a poorly judges singling out of someone in the audience to assert they were too ugly to be touched as a kid. Lose it Dave. Then the PowerPoint sequence involving John Key, policemen and livestock, etc, will work much better I bet.

Jerome Chandrahasen launches ‘The Party’ – a brand new character-based routine – with intense exhortations to smash the system, build a better one then smash that too: revolution is the solution! Once he gets past having to refer to his manifesto (a clever strategy first time out) the satirical tone should find its right level. The evidence for actors lying and the spooky relationship between gay bees, honey puffs and Brian Tamaki is all good material.

Alex Hawley expands on the set that so impressed First Laughs punters, basing much of it on the premise that those who say "can’t complain" lack imagination. His targets include people who say stupid things, the News (those live report sound delays) and current affairs, although his valiant attempt to stitch in David Bain needs more work (we know too much detail now to accept his facile assertions about why Bain obviously did it: now who’s saying stupid things?).

There is something about Hawley’s delivery and timing, however, that mark him as a natural. Amusing material about his love life now he’s in his thirties becomes hilarious in his hands and his climax involving a high stakes poker game is inspired.

Like all comedians these boys face the fear and do it anyway, and there is something about them that makes me feel sure they are their own sternest critics, dedicated to continuous improvement. If I’m right, some of what I’ve said will no longer apply.

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