When Topping & Butch are booked to play inside a giant purple cow, you know you're going to be in for a treat. Tonight's show was all about stepping outside the boundaries, although we weren't denied the treat of some of T&B's trademark topical songs such as the fabulous 'Never Mind' and '32 things that we honestly truly believe...'.

Throughout the night the boys (if you can call a retiree and a 30-something skinhead 'boys'?) brought on a variety of top, top guests from the alternative comedy circuit. First up, Lorraine Bowen was invited to a keyboard play-off, pitting her Casio-on-an-ironing-board against Topping's Yamaha and - as it turned out - winning hands-down. She quickly had the audience singing along to "Everybody's good at cooking something... I'm good at cooking crumble...".

Other highlights of the night included the shockingly funny hairy woman, Shazia Mirza ("...all the women in my family wear Burqa's - it's great because we can all use the same bus pass"), Maggie and Topping's duet of Delibes' 'Lakme' (the tune made famouns by British Airways) and David Shelley in character as Kurt Von Rimmer - a guituar-strumming ex porn star who sang us memorable lines such as, "How can I tell her that I love her with a mouthful of her pubic hair!".

But for me, the star of the show tonight was Stephen Richards who - in the spirit of Pigs Might Fly - took part in the show as himself, rather than as his alter ego Lola Lasagne. He sparkled his way through his five minute slot ("I can tell there are straights in the audience - I can smell the Kouros"), and ended up on stage for some barn dancing, yee-haa action at the finale. Stephen's stand-up comedy career started here - remember where you read it first...

So - another storming show for the Brighton Fringe Festival... if you're not hurriedly booking tickets for something before the month's out then you're a fool to miss out on all the talent that is currently gracing our seaside city!

More info on some of the acts:

www.toppingandbutch.com
www.shaziamirza.org
www.lorrainebowen.co.uk
www.lolalasagne.com