The Independent Recommends: Comedy

OTIS LEE CRENSHAW, a manacled man in an orange boiler-suit with the words "Tennessee Department of Correction" stencilled on the back, croons Country and Western songs about life on Death Row. He is the comic creation of the American stand-up Rich Hall, who must be one of the few comedians around to get laughs out of the unlikely subject of an inmate in a high-security jail. There may be question marks about taste, but Hall performs with such a winning twinkle that they are soon rendered irrelevant. He plays on a bill with Mickey Hutton and Gavin Webster as part of the Newcastle Comedy Festival.

Hyena Cafe, Newcastle (0191-232 6030) 10.30pm

Fresh from a triumphant night rounding off the Perrier Pick of Fringe season at Her Majesty's, Tommy Tiernan (above) gives his engaging brand of Irish storytelling a further London airing.

Bloomsbury Theatre, London WC1 (0171-388 8822) 8pm