We welcome back to our shores, the creative and acutely observant comedy of British comedian Stephen K Amos, in his comedy festival offering The Laughter Master.

Before you see him, you hear his smooth charming voice kindly bringing you the house keeping message much like a flight attendant would. The stage is huge and bare except for the mic the middle. And for the casual drifters out there, its background shimmers like the night sky – place I found myself a few times during the lulls of the evening.

Still, walking onto the stage, and into the spotlight your entertainer for the night – an energetic and excited Stephen Amos. From the outset, he establishes the only purpose to the next hour is laughter. And there’s lots of laughing to be done and heard throughout the set. There’s the tears rolling down your face kind, the occasional snort, synchronised laughter and the boisterous outburst of that one person that gets the joke a minute after everyone else which again sends the audience into an uproar.

Amos’ presence is captivating and at times spellbinding as you find yourself engrossed in his misadventures, waiting to hear the logic behind doors that swing in the opposite direction, how eggs are no longer enough to make omelettes. Before you know it he has you on a comic tour of the globe tracing his absurd personal experiences and exploring cultural norms. He looks at the world we live in, takes the everyday things we experience coupled with human behaviour and crafts intelligent comedy out of it.

The usual suspects form the content of Amos’ comedy. He navigates casual racism, topical events in the political sphere both here and abroad. There’s the necessary dig at Australians, the progress or rather problem of technology, Facebook, he ventures into coming of age, terrorism and of course more jokes at the expense of the Australians.

His delivery reflects his professionalism – he’s clearly been doing this for a while. His facial expressions and body language throughout the set punctuates his content – clear and confident we see Amos thriving in his element. He maintains high levels of energy throughout the show and is frequently amused at his own jokes or what the audience says and it’s good to see him enjoying himself too!

The funniest moments of the show are the audience disruption. In encouraging audience participation, Amos inadvertently invites the audience to provide and craft comedy with him. At times this disruption throws him off course and the lulls in the show are him scrabbling to get back in the flow of what he prepared.

That said, when that random audience member in seat N23 yells out something ridiculous, Amos skilfully and wittily produces the best punchlines from it without skipping a beat. He naturally weaves the interruption from the crowd into humour – his improvisational skills are quite astounding and it would be great see more of this during his set.

Amos uses coarse language in a grammatical way, in place of every full stop, comma and exclamation mark. At times this is superfluous and detracts from the genius of his comedy. But the show is for a mature audience so bear this in mind when thinking about bringing your family along.

The Laughter Master is witty, intellectual, and worldly. It’s comedy for the thinking person and for those who just want to have a laugh. Amos sets out to have the laugh and laugh you will – your funny bone will be sufficiently tickled.

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