How to be a Leader, Tim Clare, Pulse Festival, Ipswich, Friday May 27

My personal opinion is that this years Pulse is very much closer to the type of fringy stuff that you would find in the back streets of Edinburgh in August – experimental – edgy – and a bit hit and miss as far as quality and content is concerned. Tim Clare is billed as a musician, author and poet. I’m not sure any of those tags applied to this stand up comedy routine which was loosely based on the idea of a lecture on the finer points of leadership using examples of famous names from history.

Certainly Tim can hold an audience – and some of his material was well observed and very funny. He used a back screen and projections to make his points – there was some audience interaction but not enough to embarrass anyone. However, some of the material was defiantly suspect – and the rap sequence at the end on women leaders just too close to the knuckle for a show that started at 6.30pm.

This will go down well late at night in Edinburgh but defiantly should have come with a warning for early evening Ipswich.

Suzanne Hawkes