Kat Francois presents a fine mini spoken word festival at The Albany

Veteran of the scene Kat Francois, whose big night this is, hosts the evening like a stand-up comedian. At points she has the audience in stitches and even finds time to provide tips to beat the credit crunch – it’s best to invest in yams, sweet potato and give up shaving your legs, apparently.

Opener Hollie McNish has only been doing spoken word for a year but it doesn’t show. She performs four pieces on the night, two of which are really funny, and all filled with clever wordplay.

Her bilingual poem about love in two languages is a particular highlight, memorably managing to rhyme “deckchair” with “chest hair”, even if she does have to apologise to her father in the audience for some of the ruder lines.

Leicester’s Serenah Cole has a more experimental tone, shifting sometimes uncomfortably into different voices and emotions.

Simon Mole, meanwhile, provides a mixture of spoken word and hip-hop for his set including an only half-successful freestyle about 7-Up, Oyster cards and Barack Obama.

But the night is rounded-off brilliantly by duo Under da POETree, who chime in with one another’s lines, get the crowd going and generally bring some hip-hop inspired energy to the room.

At times, the performances do lurch into some of the areas cynics might expect from this type of thing; there’s only so much fun to be had from name-checking other poets and MCs or lurching into left wing politics, afterall.

But when these performers get it right, which is most of the time, the result is electrifying. Those looking for something different to do on a weeknight could do far worse then go to the next one.

The next spoken word event at The Albany is Apples & Snakes' Open Mic on Feb 19. Newcomers meet the professional poets at The Albany, Douglas Way, Deptford. 7.30pm. Arrive early and claim your all-important slot in the spotlight. £3. 020 8693 4446.