It’s a curious thing, standing in a queue for a club night with a crowd of comedy fans. The main chat? The queue’s too long and why are we not getting in at the time listed in the programme? For us though, that’s just further proof that this isn’t a comedy gig – it’s a proper club night.

Inside, we find Ivo Graham and his DJ bestie already warming up the room, ‘choons’ pumping as the crowd filters in. The rules of tonight’s battle are explained (well, yelled into a mic), and the stage is set.

Each battler gets three songs tied to a theme, and on this night – in a scene straight out of Reservoir Dogs – every clown has been assigned a colour. Only here, it’s not Mr Pink complaining, but Mr Red (Stuart Laws), who as a die-hard Spurs fan is borderline offended by the choice.

Tonight’s full DJ roster? Alison Spittle (pink), Christopher MacArthur-Boyd (gold), Susie McCabe (brown), Jen Nolan (blue), Dane Buckley (white), Sikisa (black), and Marjolein Robertson (green), who easily stole the sidekick round with her Bruce Lee/Kato-level partner Sam Lake. Their dance routines even looked partially rehearsed (yes, that was a Green Hornet reference for anyone still keeping score on the colour theme).

The battles themselves are great fun. The clowns don’t take to the decks themselves (naively, we thought we’d see a bunch of comedians scratch-mixing), but they all bring their own level of showmanship to their sets – with varying levels of dancing, singing, those sidekicks and even the odd freebie lobbed into the crowd. (Bribery, it turns out, is positively encouraged.) As for the colour connections? Let’s just say… tenuous at best.

Back in the day we’d hit Underbelly cave gigs until 5am, before Maxwell’s Full Mooners raised the bar for late-night mayhem. Ever since that ended, we’ve been searching for something to fill the void – and Comedians’ DJ Battles might just be it.

This was an amazing night, with banging energy and a selection of classic tracks covering everything from Black Box to Green Day via P!nk. In the words of our favourite clubbing movie: ‘Nice one bruva!’ 

Clown Stars: (-unrated-)

@La Belle Angele, Edinburgh

Find out more about future battles on their Instagram