EDDIE IZZARD CORN EXCHANGE CAMBRIDGE

How do I look? If there's one thing more eye-catching than a room decorated with purple walls and faux-Georgian furniture, it's the man in leather trousers and flowing silk shirt behind it all. Meet Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, the handy dandy of daytime television

THIS YEAR'S race to win the Perrier Comedy Award entered its final stage yesterday when five acts were named in a shortlist. The winner will be declared on Saturday.

Kevin Rowland's intense new image is a far cry from Boy George's cuddly cross-dressing. CAYTE WILLIAMS ponders the New Transvestite

Lenny Queen's, London

Theatre: LENNY; QUEENS THEATRE, LONDON

What Is It?

First Night `Lenny' Queen's Theatre London

Stand-up comedian Eddie Izzard has had a number of telling acting cameos recently - as the rock manager in Velvet Goldmine, the terrorist in The Secret Agent - but he is taking a major step up as the lead in Lenny, a West End revival directed by Sir Peter Hall. Julian Barry's play about Lenny Bruce, the comedian whose hard-hitting routines about politics scandalised America in the 1960s, was made into a tough film starring Dustin Hoffman in 1974. For this revival, the writer apparently especially asked for Izzard after seeing a video of his live act. It may well prove an inspired piece of casting: the styles of the two improvisational comedians are well-matched. In both their acts, the thrill of the unexpected constantly simmers below the surface.

COMEDY: JIMEOIN; EALING COMEDY FESTIVAL, LONDON

Jimeoin Ealing Comedy Festival

CHANNEL 4, it is generally agreed, have made a fine job of their inaugural Test match. Some of us were a bit alarmed by all their bold talk of dragging cricket into the 21st century. Tampering with the ball we can accept. It is, after all, a venerable practice. But tampering with our TV coverage is a different matter entirely. They inferred that they planned to make it younger and sexier, to the point where it seemed a cert that Eddie Izzard would join the commentary team. "Errrr... nice outswinger. Errrr... nice eyebrows too. And now, taking you up to the tea interval, I'll hand over to Lily Savage." We should have had more faith. Actually, our fears began to subside as soon as we found out that they had hired Richie Benaud. For if the prospect of a BBC without Test cricket was mildly depressing, it was nowhere near as unsettling as the prospect of Test cricket without Benaud. In Friday's Independent, Stan Hey described Benaud as the best cricket commentator of all time, with John Arlott a close second. In fact, there are some who would reverse this order. It is certainly undeniable that Arlott, not only blessed with one of broadcasting's most beguiling voices, was also cricket's supreme wordsmith.

After witnessing a stand-up performance by Lenny Bruce, the critic Kenneth Tynan wrote: "Clutching a hand mike, he slouched around a tiny dais, free-associating like mad; grinning as he improvised, caring as he grinned, seldom repeating in the second show what he said in the first, and often conducting what amounted to a rush job of psychoanalysis on the audience he was addressing. He used words as a jazz musician uses notes, going off into fantastic private cadenzas and digressions, and returning to his theme just when you thought he had lost track for ever."

Sir: Tony Benn is an admirable relic of the heyday of Westminster democracy, when we were grateful that our betters represented us and we had no chance of participating. Today we are consumer citizens with direct and global and increasingly interactive media, not to mention an all-pervasive democracy of information, NGOs and the other bits and pieces of politics without politicians.