The New Continental’s first ‘Comedy Lounge’ was opened with a cracking comedy show featuring Charlie Chuck, Chris Roach, El Purnell and Pam Ford.

Charlie Chuck have a stunning performance showing he’s still got it, as his comic talent was impecable with a partisan local crowd willing him on.

The Continental’s ‘Arts Space’ was at capacity as Chuck reeled off one liners, seemingly half-possessed as he staggered through bizarre tales – often going off on bizarre tangents. The quick fire set was over far too soon.

Chris Roach had been on before Chuck and the Oldham comedian was witty, sharp and incisive as he opened up Northern life in all its grimy glory. He seemed a bit nervous at the start but the crowd warmed to him, as he dissed previous comedian El Purnell, and ripped local estates to shreds with witty insights. Roach is definitely a comedian to keep an eye on in the future.

El Purnell was a bizarre turn. In a Borat style-set, he was mainly speaking in Spanish – as El Purnell is from Ecudaor. His set was based very much on turning the odd word of English into his Spanish sentences and taking the piss out of various audience members. It was funny, but a good job it was a short set as the joke would have worn thin after a while. The end of his set was definitely the highlight as he brought two audience members up (one willingly, the other reluctantly) to don sombreros and dance to the Village People’s ‘YMCA’.

The compere Pam Ford, was okay. She held the hecklers in the crowd well, but her Australian/chic lit style humour was wearing thin by the end of the night. She had some amusing anecdotes about the Aussie accent, run-ins with unfulfiling men and certainly got the crowd going, but definitely wouldn’t be a regular choice for compere duties.