David O’Doherty uses music throughout as a kind of mood-dictating undercurrent, though the real bass line to his set is a constant soundtrack of guffawing supplied by the audience.

Even when he had stopped speaking, I found my shoulders instinctively chugging up and down and the laughs flying out.

As the headliner in the Big Top at the second night of Magners Greenwich Comedy Festival, he was the perfect booking.

His delivery is incessant, his material well-observed and sufficiently off-the-wall but it’s his whole demeanour and presence which leave you so amused and charmed that you just want to hug him and ask him, primary school-style, if he’ll be your best friend.

In the hands of lesser comedians, material about utility company phonelines or Toblerone in airports could sound tired and hackneyed but his unique take and delivery are just seducing.

Another comic with a potent comic demeanour is James Acaster. When you don’t know a comedian – as I didn’t with James – then you sometimes take a while to warm to them.

Not with James Acaster, who started with a bang – or actually whatever the opposite of a bang is, but with the same affect. From the moment he walked out, you could tell a special evening was ahead.

He has an engrossing strange nerdy-kid-in-the-playground persona through which he delivers absurd and often brilliantly delusional ideas that range from refillable ice-creams to oven gloves and the sustained idea that he’s not actually a stand-up, he’s a cop undercover as a stand-up. It was captivating.

Sandwiched between them was the more straightforwardly mainstream Josh Widdicombe. That’s not to say he was any less funny or likeable, just that the set was easier to pin down.

It’s no wonder he’s popular on the telly, just about everyone bought into his memories of school, aeroplanes and Super Noodles.

Compere Ed Gamble will have no doubt been grateful that he had a much more straightforward night – no-one claiming to be Noddy, Big Ears, Bono or Beyonce in the crowd – allowing him to make maximum use of his audience interaction skills and quick thinking and to work the room masterfully.

The Magners Greenwich Comedy Festival returns to the National Maritime Museum from the 24th-28th September. This year's line-up features Rich Hall, Milton Jones, Nina Conti and more, with tickets starting at £15.

Book your tickets at Greenwichcomedyfestival.co.uk or follow @MagnersUK to enter daily ticket competitions.