Andrew Lawrence: Heaven knows he's miserable now

Described in a recent article as "up and coming", despite a nine-year career so far, Andrew Lawrence is understandably put out. Luckily for us, it's another green light for the rake-thin comic to see red.

He leaves other stand-ups trailing in the wake of his misanthropy and nihilism. Recent years have seen Lawrence whip himself into a rather formulaic frenzy, using duologue rants that isolated him from his audience. This year, the suited-and-booted miserabilist has paced and pitched his woe to near-perfection.

"There are so many drugs in my system that I could be on the Chinese Olympic swimming team," he notes. He still has the wherewithal to dish it out, most notably to tradesmen who arrive early and to those who parrot stock phrases such as "God moves in mysterious ways". Like Frank Spencer's evil and more confident twin, Lawrence finds it easy to lead audiences to the abyss of the human condition and then to laugh at it: many will find more common with him than they might have dared to admit.