THE Burning Duck Comedy Club ushered in its first birthday celebration at The Black Swan with an eclectic range of comedians.

The first act, Joshua Saunders, supplied amusing facts about the ratio of Greggs the bakers in Leeds to people called Greg. Eleanor Mason then delivered a sketch, The Life Of A Corporate Man, in the form of amateur dramatic freeze frames. This first section was brought to a close by a musical number by Harrogate comedian Tom Taylor.

The second part of the night brought on a descent into the surreal. The audience watched on bemused by the presence of a baby doll called Baby John, voiced by Al Greaves, the Burning Duck promoter, as we listened over the raucous laughter to a brilliant rendition of Blur’s Parklife entitled John’s Life.

Sir Dickie Benson then clambered over the few empty chairs, shaking hands with a couple of us in the audience and eventually on to the stage to carry out his bizarre antics.

The third and final part of the evening was dedicated entirely to the headliner, Seymour Mace. His stream of improvisation about his surroundings ranged from the upstairs room of the The Black Swan being turned upside down to create four sandpits, to the recently decapitated Burning Duck birthday cake.

Mace then told a story that he claimed wasn't funny - he was wrong - about being young and unemployed and having to avoid the advances of barely known actors, which struck familiar and fond images of Uncle Monty from Withnail And I.

The evening ran smoothly with constant quips from the compère, Ross Briley, whose interaction with the audience set many of the comedians up for their own improvisations.