As the train pulled out of Liverpool Street Station, I found myself asking why I was heading out to a makeshift comedy club in darkest Essex on a Thursday night… and, in fairness, it was a solid question.

The answer lies with a good pal of mine who had been raving about his local laughter spot ever since he moved to the area. Combine that with his glowing praise for this evening’s headliner, and voilà, here we are… He also offered to pay for the drinks!

The headlining comedian in question is Stephen Carlin (sadly no relation to George, I checked), a slick Scottish performer. But before we get to him, there were some other acts on the bill.

MC Paul Merryck runs the AComedy club and is as clichéd a fit for this type of Essex venue as you could possibly wish. He opened with some solid local banter before introducing us to the support acts, all of whom gave it their all. Standout moments came from Si Deaves, who genuinely broke the crowd with his takes on classic children’s stories featuring anthropomorphic animals, and Dinesh Nathan, who kept the room laughing with his easy and enjoyable flow – both of whom we’d like to catch again.

It’s worth noting that everything would have been delightful had it not been for a few people in the crowd. Most were raucous yet respectful during the performances, but right in front of us was a couple attempting to noisily dry hump each other at their table – she looked like a peroxided troll doll, and he acted like the sort of guy Joey Essex would refer to as “the fick one”. Lovely.

This is by no means the club’s fault, but it’s such a shame how many people’s nights can be negatively affected by a couple of idiots. Enough of that, though. Let’s get back to the show. We took the opportunity of the short interval to refill our glasses at the bar before settling in for our headliner.

Stephen Carlin has an incredibly easy delivery style that brings a crowd onboard within seconds. It’s interesting to see the levels in comedy displayed as clearly as they were tonight – the support acts all had something but were clearly working at it, whereas our headliner was simply effortless in his delivery.

He spent his time on stage crafting a glorious web of doom, including takes on how climate change ending the world is actually his retirement plan and how heroin is solving a potential obesity problem in Scotland… in fact, the problem may simply be that they don’t take enough!

He took a very drunk midweek crowd and toyed with them; his material was on point and, as with all good comedians, he left us wanting more.

This was a really enjoyable evening of comedy, and even though I don’t think I’ll ever be convinced by the ‘dinner and a show’ style of stand-up venue, I think my pal’s praise of this place and its acts was well-founded.

Now, how the hell do I get home?

Stephen Carlin will be performing at Laughing Horse @ City Cafe during the Edinburgh Fringe – you can find more details here

Clown Stars : (-unrated-)

@AComedy Club (ACanteen), Chelmsford