Simon Munnery in Oslo

If a comedy show is worth seeing, it's worth seeing twice - especially when it's not going to be the same and you've forgotten most of the one you saw seven months ago. Simon Munnery does not improvise his comedy words - his material is all pre-written - but the order in which those words are vented varies from show to show and audience to audience with an improvisational flair. Just as a musician improvising knows what the next note is going to sound like before they play it, Munnery improvises with his pre-written lines.

His show in Oslo was quite different to the one I saw in Edinburgh in August, and, not being blessed with a very good memory, I enjoyed the bits I'd forgotten almost as much as if I'd never heard them before.

As with every English-language comedy show I see in Norway, my admiration for many Norwegians' fluency in English increased - Munnery's mental meanderings lose many native English speakers, but the predominantly Norwegian audience followed his every verbal twist and turn (I can't say the same for when I was watching the Norwegian support act).