Tuesday nights have a warm, firry feeling at The Fir Tree, or at least the last Tuesday of every month does. That’s when the Firry Mic open mic sessions organised by Pete ‘the temp’ Bearder (pictured) and James Thorn take place, packed so tight you couldn’t slip a cigarette paper between the punters, and equally packed with fantastic performers – from the strangely lovely oboe-com of Tim Goldman to rapping wordsmith Nomadic Joe, the evening welcomes you in off the street for a night of cosy friendliness in a proper pub.

Pete (UK Hammer & Tongue Poetry Slam Champion 2009) and Guinness-voiced singer-songwriter James open proceedings with a genuinely warm welcome, while they put together the line-up for the evening. There is a growing list of regulars – performers and audience – but usually also a ‘family’ of Firry virgins, who don’t know the delights of woolly monkeys, or the pain of being a temporary worker (Pete soon puts them in the picture).

Where else could you see a keyboard debut featuring Willy Wonka’s welcome to the chocolate factory (as quoted above) from a student called Jo, the Moogy Man’s deadpan panning of himself, long words you’ve never heard before put together in a sequence you don’t understand but you like anyway from Stuart Robert Bryant, the folkish but never foppish charm of Ed Pope, songs of pain for gay cowboys and prostitutes from Huck and Tamara Parsons Baker, all fabulously finished with Abelardo Polonio’s flamenco fandango? And all free! That’s what happens when you enter a world of pure imagination. You forget real life. Just for a while.

If you like the Firry Mic (next one March 30), you’ll also love George’s Jamboree, hosted by George Chopping, second Monday every month, Chester Arms, 19 Chester Street; and Cabaret Clandestino hosted by Pete ‘the temp’ Bearder this Saturday in the East Oxford Community Centre at 9pm.