As we wandered down Brighton Beach to one of our favourite pre-show haunts (The Loading Bar), we were stopped in our tracks by the shocking news that it had been hired out for a corporate event!

Disappointed but by no means defeated, we pivoted quickly and headed up the nearby ramp to The Zip Bar, where we grabbed a round of the local Brighton Gin and headed to the platform deck for drinks in the sun – we are nothing if not a flexible bunch!

With our tans (or burns) neatly topped up, we took a trip through the Lanes to the Three Jolly Butchers for our date with a one-legged clown doctor… No, no, you read that right.

The Butchers has been a hit-and-miss venue for us in the past – we’re talking comedy-wise, rather the pub itself, which is an old-man classic, and their chips with Thai curry sauce are top drawer. But we had high hopes for this show, so we charged our glasses and donned our imaginary scrubs as our medical clown took us on a tour of the NHS children’s wards, one baffling anecdote at a time.

Bed 32 isn’t just another hour of stand-up; it’s a prescription-strength dose of storytelling, showcasing the blend of humour and bedside manner that must surely be required of every successful paediatrician.

Pulling straight from personal experience (yes, the bed number really is our clown’s own), McKenzie shines a light on the sheer weirdness of sharing his medical issues with the public, and for spending most of his childhood in hospital. Expect gallows humour, gory details, and the kind of real-life tales that deliver laughter and shock in equal measure.

The entire show is delivered with – and entirely dependent on – our clown’s signature charm (part cheeky mate, part medical musician), and manages that rare comedy trick of being both properly funny and sneakily moving.

On this particular night, the tech let our clown’s original plans down, but in no way did that diminish our enjoyment of the show. This is a confident performer with a fascinating story to tell, and the fact that all profits from the show are going straight to a children’s charity only adds to the feel-good nature of the performance.

Clown Stars: (-unrated-)

@Half a Camel – Jollies, Three Jolly Butchers, Brighton

Michael McKenzie is currently touring ‘Bed 32’ and will be playing the Nottingham Comedy Festival later this year.