Hecklergigs: Milton Jones, The Porthole

Comedy nights can be hit-and-miss affairs.

You know the score - sometimes you're blown away by a selection of genuinely witty, intelligent and funny gag-merchants, while on other occasions you end up so bored with legions of "hey, aren't men and women kinda different" jokes that you end up gnawing on your pint glass in sheer frustration. And then receiving a cleaners bill for all that pesky blood-mopping afterwards.

New Kilburn comedy club The Porthole - and it is new, for this Monday was indeed its opening night - comes as a pleasant surprise on two accounts. Number one: it neatly snuggles into the former category listed above, what with it having a first-rate assortment of microphone-wielders treading the boards. Number two: it shows that you don't have to travel slap-bang into the centre of London to see great comedy. Kilburn locals - all hovering around a spot on the Jubilee line - now have a nearby weekly comedy night that comes at a remarkably reasonable price.

How reasonable? Try £3 for members or £4 for the rest. For just over the price of a pint, for example, hecklerspray revelled in roundabout two-and-a-half hours of comic talent. Even if Kilburn is only somewhere you're familiar with by staring at the edges of the Tube map every morning, a club like this is well worth the travel, whether you're local to the area or not.

Anyone needing further persuasion should check out the roster for the first night. Kicking off with skilled audience wranglers Benny Boot and Steve Weiner (whose dissection of chavspeak in supermarkets was spot-on), we were then treated to the off-kilter and slightly dark musings of Michael Fabbri (who incidentally owes us a drink should he use that prop idea hecklerspray was babbling about. Either that or a cut of any future DVD sales, if possible. Either would work, to be honest).

Rounding everything off, however, was the remarkable Milton Jones . You may have seen Jones on many a televised stand-up compilation, or more likely his recent Radio 4 series, but it's in a club-based live environment that he really shines. Coming across as a peculiar hybrid of Stephen Wright and Harry Hill - yet with better one-liners than both - he's a veritable joke machine with a winning deadpan delivery and an ease with an audience that's pretty much masterful. You know you're dealing with a great comedian when you can sense an act being tailored perfectly to the surroundings.

All of this is hosted by the effervescent and enthusiastic James Everett, whose immediate control of the crowd marks him out as the ideal host. After a few years of gathering attention on the circuit, he now seems to have established a permanent base in a weekly night that looks set to grow and grow in popularity. Hecklerspray has been privy to some of the upcoming names who are going to be swinging by to do a set, and there are some big ones on there. Like, BAFTA-winning big.

Look - in essence, here's what we're trying to say. Mondays are generally rubbish. Why not make yours better by heading out to this Kilburn laughfest, having a couple of beers and watching some top acts reel out their comic charms. It certainly beats watching EastEnders with a Pot Noodle on your lap, anyway.

And if you're especially lucky? You might even bump into a hecklerspray writer.

Now if that isn't worth the journey alone…

The Porthole takes place every Monday night at The Good Ship, 289 Kilburn High Road, NW6 7JR. Show begins 8.30 sharpish. Next week's headliner is the wonderful Shazia Mirza. More details here.