I went to a Corpus Smoker last year.  I was one of a handful of people there, watching too few performers doing sets that were too long.  I only went the once.  But the redeveloped Corpus Playroom – even if the benches are the same – has re-established its fortnightly Monday smokers with a highly entertaining first show.  Ali Lewis was an excellent compère and told an amusing job interview anecdote in nostalgic celebration of the second anniversary of his arrival on the Cambridge comedy scene.

Some acts were admirable, others less so. Musical comedy is a smoker favourite and Nathan Gower’s lament on the woes of a middle-class upbringing was a superb example of why.  However, he would have done better to leave his evening at that, since his monologue as Bear Grylls’ less adventurous younger brother was as tame comically as the character he was portraying.  The series of sketches he delivered along with Oliver Marsh and Claire O’Brien were clever, though perhaps a little over-thought.  The first of these suffered from being anticipated by a flood of porn jokes earlier in the night. Overall the group performance lacked a sense of spontaneity.

I remember Marc Shalet making me laugh, but I can’t remember precisely why.  His series of jokes were very funny individually but his act as whole felt a little disjointed, though certainly promising.  Henry Staples had a similar effect.  He has an amusing presence and needs to stop repeating himself and get round to telling a few more jokes.  Zoe Tomalin was bright and kooky and fun, though she sometimes relied on her likeable character instead of punch lines, while the sooner John Bailey realises that being working-class and from the north is not funny per se the better for us all.

But as always with Cambridge smokers, there are some stand-out acts.  Angus Morrison developed his quirk of a northern background juxtaposed with his Conservative politics to good comic effect.  The headline act, too, was worthy of his title, as Jamie Mathieson closed the show with a marvellous set.  Although he used some material from last year, he was brilliantly diverse, ranging from Power Rangers to Samuel Pepys to Alan Bennett and maintaining laughter all the way.  His experience showed and he has developed quite remarkably since the Corpus smoker I saw last year into one of the ones to watch out for in Cambridge comedy.