"HISTORY is being made, right here," pronounced Ivo Graham jovially at the start of his sold-out stand-up show at the Old Fire Station on Thursday night: it was not only his first gig in Carlisle, but his first in Cumbria.

This is surprising for a comedian who's been on the circuit for 15 years, and who has grown in stature via appearances on the all-conquering Taskmaster and a semi-regular role in the cult radio show and podcast of fellow comedians Elis James and John Robins.

But it's good to have him in town.

Following a support slot from Alex Kealy, Graham's show has a ramshackle quality but in fact it's quite tight and controlled, having been honed on the road since debuting in anarchic fashion in Edinburgh last year.

The show is titled Organised Fun, and this is both the broad theme of the assorted anecdotes and a description of the final act - a frenetic live game of top trumps played with audience members on stage.

The material is clever as well as funny - he skewers his own tortured Englishness in the way he thinks about Henry VIII placing an order for a specialist head-chopping swordsman from Calais - a month 'before' Anne Boleyn's trial - every time he uses Amazon Prime.

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Interactions with the audience injected a nicely unpredictable edge. One punter - worse for wear after a 'thirsty Thursday' - emerged as a star. "How many swimming pools have you wee'd in?" asked Graham, unexpectedly. The response was immediate and unnervingly precise: "Six".

It's good to see a comic of Graham's standing play Carlisle, whether it's for the first time or the fiftieth time, and the Old Fire Station is a great venue for stand-up. Let's hope it continues to be a regular stop-off point for touring comedians of this calibre.