REVIEW - Rob Deering, Ustinov Studio, Bath: WITH an encouraging number of new comedy venues currently springing up in the region, The Comedy Zone Week at the Ustinov seemed a sure-fire winner.

However, last week's event got off to a slow start, with events early on in the week attracting only small audiences. Saturday's double bill, however Francesca Martinez, who won the Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award 2000, and Edinburgh Festival favourite Andy Zaltman was a sell-out, and Friday's performance by Karl Theobald, who starred alongside Lenny Henry in Chef!, didn't lag too far behind.

So what is the problem? Don't people want to laugh mid-week?

Rob Deering, who took to the stage on Thursday, faced an audience of two or three dozen, and never did that tiny stage look a bigger or more lonely place.

Deering who won the Amused Moose New Talent Competition last year showed little sign of nerves (though nervous he must have been, and he did glance at his watch once or twice) but somehow failed to put the audience at their ease. And an audience almost palpably willing a comedian to make them laugh is not comfortable, and therefore does not laugh easily. It's a bit of a vicious circle, and one which Deering was unable to really break out of.

He tried to send himself up about his bad timing and for spinning out jokes too long, but failed to build up enough rapport with the audience to bring this off.

Where he did shine, however, was when he picked up his guitar. He delivered several genuinely funny skits on well-known songs and singers, and near the end of his oh-so-long hour on stage performed 'critiques' of James Bond films shouted out by members of the audience. Maybe it was that simple element of audience participation, a reasonable ability to mimic the original soundtracks or the snappy skits he sang to sum up each film, but something finally worked, and worked well.

Use Bond at the start of your routine, Deering, don't put your guitar down, and you're on to a winner.