Laurence Clark: Health Hazard!

Laurence Clark's comedy is clearly not for everyone, a total of seven walk-outs blighting this evening's show. Not only does he make thoughtful points in an eloquent, often understated fashion that requires the full attention of his audience, but he delivers them from a wheelchair. A 'sufferer' of cerebral palsy, he is comfortable with an affliction that some would rather not confront, even if in refusing to do so, they miss out on some sharp and incisive material.

Inspired by time spent in America, Health Hazard! is a loving ode to the NHS and an investigation into the country's wariness of 'socialised' healthcare. An engaging, animated performer, routines concerning his dependency on PowerPoint presentations in domestic situations and his bare-faced efforts to receive arts council funding form a hilarious line in self-deprecation. References to Duncan from Blue's badly-worded acceptance of the disabled, meanwhile, are played for surreal effect, rather than as a scathing attack on his character.

Unfortunately, most of Clark's best material is delivered at the top of the show. By the time we are shown footage of him on the streets of New York, attempting to distribute pro-NHS pamphlets to an apathetic US public, he appears to have swapped gags for sub-Michael Moore emotional manipulation. He even goes so far as to soundtrack one clip with REM's 'Everybody Hurts'. Though clearly enthusiastic about the NHS, Clark shoots himself in the foot whenever he over-sentimentalises the institution.