Adam Hess @ Heroes, The Hive

Adam Hess’s follow-up to last year’s Salmon – which earned him a Best Newcomer nominee – is called Feathers, but it could really have been named after any of the words plucked from his 50 minute set. It’s not important; while many comedians are writing conceptual pieces, dealing with intense subject matter and tying their messages together with layered storylines and multimedia, Hess deals exclusively in jokes, solely in laughs. He barely even pauses to breathe. It’s exhilarating.

Feathers is a very funny performance from a guy who wins over The Hive in a matter of seconds – from the moment he welcomes a sell-out crowd to “the most disgusting building in Scotland.” His story, which takes in disappointed parents and clumsy courtship, is interspersed with non sequiturs about the bananas in pyjamas and the downside of having the softest lips in Croydon. It’s all performed in a frenetic manner, but it’s a rousing show from a man who claims to fluctuate between “having low self-esteem, and feeling like the chosen one.” He has every reason to be happy with his latest effort.