Off to Bath for an inspirational lecture from businessman extraordinaire Brian Butterfield. It’s fascinating to see Peter Serafinowicz in the flesh/fat suit, and the obvious question going into the show is whether the character can sustain itself for that long. It’s a qualified “yes”. It’s a wooly show, one that does not need to be two hours. There are moments of pure inspiration in there, and some wonderful set pieces, but at one point I realised that what I was effectively watching was a Mat Ewins show but with about a third of the gag rate and twice as long. The audience interaction is dragged out in a way that doesn’t quite fulfil the criteria of going on so long it becomes funny again, and other bits could easily be cut. This sounds churlish, I know, but the secret of comedy is timing and that’s more than just when to say the punchlines; it’s how many of them to say, and how to manage the peaks and troughs of a show. I do laugh a lot, and it’s not a wasted evening, but when you spend the back half of a show doing the mental calculus of which train you’re going to be able to catch back to Bristol, there’s an argument.