Much has been made of the explosion of live music in the last few years, but in Oxford it seems to be stand-up comedy that’s booming. Within the last year, Glee Club has opened, bringing four top notch comedians to the town every single weekend, the New Theatre’s calendar seems to have more comedy on it every season and now Paddy Luscombe, promoter of the very successful and much loved Free Beer Show, has opened a new monthly comedy night, Live At The Regal. The series launched on Saturday, with Mock The Week and 8 Out Of 10 Cats regular Andrew Maxwell (pictured) as headliner.

Maxwell comes across — as all good comedians should — with the air that he’s improvising everything, with relaxed delivery and endless anecdotes. He’s charming and caustically sarcastic at the same time, flipping constantly between stories about his children and friends and tirades against the tabloid media and British attitudes. Bitterly cynical sometimes and hopelessly optimistic at others, his stuff doesn’t always work and hangs together loosely, but that’s probably a conscious decision rather than lack of preparation. He’ll be panel show gold for a while yet.

The promoters of Live At The Regal will hope to emulate the success of its monstrously successful namesake at the Hammersmith Apollo, and, with Richard Herring, Russell Kane and Jim Jefferies already booked for future nights, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t. This is a very fine addition to Oxford’s comedy arsenal.