A few months ago a friend wanted to take his brother for a night out and asked me to recommend a comedy show. I recommended Pierre Novellie. My friend didn't like it, although he acknowledged that everybody else in the room did. I'm going to have to seriously rethink my friendships as Novellie is one of the top stand-ups plying their trade at the moment. And he's prolific too. He's already back with a brand new show, Okay, One More Then Bedtime (Monkey Barrel, four stars). I think he's aced it again. My friend is going to have another hit to avoid.

 

In his latest show Novellie touches on various things that have happened to him the last year. Most notably parakeets, his honeymoon and a meeting with a Buddhist monk in Japan. He hopes that the monk can give him the secret of life as well as some content for his show. Comedy fans will know by now that Novellie is autistic, he is also something of a catastrophist.

 

So can the monk help him to ditch the angst and ascend to a kind of zen-like calm? It's a very funny central story exquisitely delivered, with every word carefully selected. I'm not going to reveal all here of course. You'll have to buy a ticket to find out whether he gets contentment as well as content. 

 

Just a quick mention for Zara Gladman (Monkey Barrel, three stars). I thought I had a ticket for Huge Davis but it turned out to be his day off and Zara Gladman was on instead. I assumed this was part of a run but it turned out to be a one-off reprise of Gladman's show last year centring on her viral character Aileen, who was doing the gig to raise money for her son Cameron's Gap Year Fundraiser.

 

To be honest I found Aileen fun for a while but a little limited – A kind of young, snooty Scottish curtain-twitching Hyacinth Bucket with a touch of Edna Everage, forever obsessed with status and keeping up those appearances. Obviously if you come from the West End of Glasgow she will particularly resonate, though of course snobs are universal as her many clicks prove. Maybe I was in the position of my friend above at the Novellie gig. Everyone around me - clearly fans of Aileen on TikTok – was loving it. Personally I preferred Gladman when she came on as herself halfway through and did some engagingly jangly comic tunes. 

 

Indy! (Gilded Balloon, four stars) is a spectacular spoof of the finest moments of the Indiana Jones franchise, written by and starring Daniel Clarkson and Brendan Murphy and also starring Victoria Blunt. If you don't know the plots of Indiana Jones this show won't make much sense but if you do their lo-fi send-up/homage/parody/pastiche/whatever keeps the movie's lawyers at bay is a huge hoot. They've both been in the pastiche business before – Clarkson is co-creator of Potted Potter, Murphy created Buffy Revamped.

There is no attempt at emulating the film's big set pieces. This is, after all, a fundraising production by the Basingstoke Archeological Society so cash is tight. In fact the acting is pretty good considering it is supposed to be being staged by a bunch of amateurs. Boulders seems to be made of cardboard, the flames on burning torches are represented by wiggling fingers. There are teeny tiny aeroplanes. Brendan Murphy does a German accent which is funny and not racist at all. In fact the production knowingly skims over playing any foreign characters that could possibly be construed as unwoke. 

 

It's all done with the fun foregrounded. The pace dips occasionally, but the suitably square-jawed Clarkson plays Indiana with gusto and Murphy has a whale of a time mugging and hamming it up, while Blunt gets her main slice of the comic action towards the end. Whether it's quite ready for the holy grail of West End theatre domination I'm not so sure, but a few judicious tweaks and it could get there.

 

Oh, and if you sit close to the front and play your cards right you might get to play Indy's dad Sean Connery. The fan who did it when I was in was so good he might be cast in the next movie version now that Sean is not available due to being dead. A whipcrackingly jolly way to escape from the world outside. 

 

I've seen Eric Rushton's previous two shows and I've been surprised they've not been closer to awards contention. Maybe this time he'll get there with the touchingly funny Could Well Be In (Monkey Barrel, four stars). It's probably the easiest show in the world to describe in one sentence. It's Rushton's life story from childhood hard times to university and finally ending up where he is now, receiving the present of a dartboard from his mum which he has onstage. Sadly health and safety meant he wasn't allowed to throw any arrows at it in the venue.

But these bullet points really don't do Rushton justice. The way he describes his childhood - loads of siblings squeezed into a house (but not catholic, he points out), always battling debt – makes it sound a little like a Ken Loach movie or a mild misery memoir. But the family is mostly happy, his mum is a hero and eventually he vows to be a big success so that he can 'save' everyone. Does he manage it? I don't want to say too much, but the fact that he's playing pretend darts in a damp basement might be a clue to the heartfelt conclusion. Could Well Be In has sad bits and happy bits and Rushton tackles both in superb style. He's a fantastic storyteller and I think he's hit the bullseye this time. 

 

Germany's Mario Adrion (Pleasance Courtyard, four stars) has been selling out his shows, possibly on the basis that his poster is basically him with his shirt off. I might try that if I ever do a show. Before becoming a stand-up Adrion was a successful model and his show tells the story of his pre-comedy catwalk career. There's a glamorous upside but, of course, behind it, inevitably a downside. He may look perfect but life has been anything but, as he reveals towards the end of this candid, revealing show. Adrion now lives in America and the show is delivered, of course, in English as perfect as his cheekbones. 

 

Adrion never intended to be a model but a picture went viral and he was soon snapped up. Fashion spreads followed, but was he happy? When he went on one job he was thrown into a house with a group of models who made him feel inadequate. Of course he was ripped and had a six pack, but then he looked at the guy next to him: "even his dick had a six pack." This is a show you should see to discover his full story. Needless to say, it turns out that being a male model can be every bit as exploitative as being a female model.