A JONGLEUR is a travelling minstrel, and so it is only right that London comedy institution Jongleurs should sprout wings.

As part of its 20th anniversary celebrations, Maria Kempinska's club has opened a regional branch line in humour in York, with Australian compere Colin Cole, Mancunian Smug Roberts and Geordie Dave Johns making up last night's inaugural bill.

The Grand Opera House is steeped in comic history: the great names have played there, from Marie Lloyd and Laurel & Hardy in declining health, to Ken Dodd and Peter Kay in his York debut.

This plush velvet theatre is far more suited to comedy than the modern minimalism of the Barbican Centre but that is not to say it is ideal for a regular comedy club night. Traditionally such events involve beer and fags, crammed tables and back chat in small smoky back rooms. In York The Other Side Club in the Basement Bar of City Screen fits that bill, and Dan Atkinson's club will be returning this coming Sunday for its fortnightly autumn season.

Atkinson is the local operative, Jongleurs is the national comedy chain whose clubs pulled one million punters last year, but both will be fishing for stock in the same talent pool.

So take your pick: underground and up close in the Basement Bar or plenty of space between performer and seats, other members of the audience and acts - there was a half-hour interval for ale and smoke re-fuelling last night - at the Opera House.

Jongleurs' commitment to comedy in York initially takes the form of a three-month trial residency, with October 5 and November 9 to come. If there was an air of just another night, another town to last night's low-key launch, then nevertheless it was a thoroughly standard club night, late change in line-up and all as 2002 Perrier Award nominee Phil Nicol was replaced by Dave Johns in the headline spot.

Club comedy's code of conduct, in which strangers seek to amuse (and maybe abuse) strangers, is always ripe with strange possibilities.

While Colin Cole could bring order to any occasion with his ready, ruddy wit - a case of Aussie rules - and jester Smug Roberts offered mildly diverting thoughts on demanding, scally children, new-man domestic politics and marital bedroom relations, Dave Johns had the cutting edge. He made short shrift of a heckler, sliced up students sitting close to the front, and had a bad word to say about any number of political issues. A hard act to follow.

Updated: 14:56 Monday, September 08, 2003