5th March 2010, COMEDY: Josie Long, The Old Red Lion Hotel

I'd seen Josie Long once before and was a little disappointed so it was great to see her for a second time and leave smiling from ear to ear. The show was a work in progress that tried to make sense of whether being nice is the same as doing good and the confusion doing good can bring. The first 45 minutes or so were straight stand-up and was just fantastic. She has a lovely way about her and her subjects were unusual and sweet. Then, there was a point where it changed emphasis. I struggled a bit for a while. I'm extremely aware of the idea of being preached to and the transition between the two sections of show wasn't smooth enough to not have me feeling a bit anxious there for a while. But once I realised that it wasn't preachy at all and that everything she was saying made total sense and tied up with what she'd been talking about before, I relaxed. It's storytelling comedy that makes you think, in a way that suggests that she's not so far away from some of Daniel Kitson's previous work.