Hosted by DJ and TV presenter Tommy Sandhu, the evening brought together five Aisan comedians to do short sets, recorded on camera. Sandhu did a good job of warming up the audience, while also making sure we had some idea of our role in the TV programme.
First of the five was a Geordie, Rahul Kohli, who made some play of his Mexican sounding forename, and reckoned that the EU Referendum result had brought in a new game - Paki-Man Go. He's an engaging comedian, but there seemed little in his material to mark him out as a man to watch out for,
He was followed by Sindhu Vee with stories of inter-generational family conflicts, and the very different approaches to the Santa Claus myth that she and her Danish husband have. This was the second time I'd seen her in little more than a week and although some elements of the two routines were identical I found her slow burning delivery style kept it fresh.
Bilal Zafar started slowly, but was immediately likeable. He has achieved some fame through the Muslim-only cake shop spoof he used to wind up the lunatic right on Twitter, and his retelling of how that evolved was hilarious.
The most unconventional act of the night was Mawaan Rizwan, a grinning clown who played games with the audience and made use of popcorn and baby wipes. An act of continual silliness with some clever, sometimes surreal, lines and clever use of repetition to build up the laughs.
With the final act held up in traffic recording was suspended for a few minutes and Sandhu did a bit of Asian Blind Dating which ended up with a likely couple on stage. Well, I think she thought it might be likely....
Australian Nazeem Hussain completed the line-up. The most self-assured of the bunch, he had a ready supply of material as he sought out the measure of his audience and found the laughter spot. An excellent end to an enjoyable show.
But the lasting memory is of Rizwan's shyly seductive grin and the sheer daftness of his performance. He'd certainly be the one I'd most like to see again.
The recording will be available on the red button on 3 September.
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