If it’s the first Tuesday in any month, then it’s Wicked Wenches, the all female line-up at Edinburgh’s premier comedy club The Stand. This is always a night we try not to miss as the bill is packed with both local and visiting funny ladies and the standard is incredibly high. All the media hype about female comedians not being as funny as their male counterparts, nonsense as far as we are concerned, could be resolved if some of these critics cared to attend one of these gigs.

Compere of the night was as usual Susan Calman. Former lawyer Susan might be small in stature but more than makes up for it with her ability and material with which she becomes a veritable giant. Having see her numerous times this year alone it is seldom that the same gag is ever heard more than once and she has the ability of identifying ‘victims’ in the crowd, and warming up busy club for the acts to follow.

First up on the night was ‘American’ comedy singer Loretta May, although I thought she bore more than a passing resemblance to if.comedy award nominated Pippa Evans. Ms May, accompanying herself on guitar, serenaded one and all with a selection of her self-written songs about episodes in her life, all with a comic theme. Ms May has an excellent singing voice, plays a mean guitar and has oodles of stage presence. It was good to meet this character, well created and presented as is usual for this artiste.

Following the first interval Susan introduced Glasgow based ‘Nirelander’ Elaine Malcomson. We have seen Elaine a number of times this year alone and get more hooked on her style each time. It was less than a month since we saw her last, yet the set she produced was all new in content, yet was the same high quality as previous stuff. Elaine’s demeanour always seems to be somewhat vulnerable, almost lacking in confidence, yet in her own dead pan style and well crafted material she has no need to be, as usual now we thought she was great and look forward to seeing her star rise in the comedy firmament.

Alison Kennedy closed part two and is another Stand and Wicked Wenches stalwart. Like Susan and Elaine, we have seen Alison perform loads of times over the last few years, each time she delivers a brand new set. In her ‘other’ job Ms Kennedy is an award winning author and now playwright so words do come naturally to her it seems. She certainly knows how to entertain as well, captivating the crowd with her set, often self-deprecating, always well written and performed with plenty of LOL moments for us anyway. Like good word-smiths she can paint a picture that is almost three dimensional in no time flat. A real talent.

Following the prize draw and a bit more banter from the ‘green goblin’, Susan introduced top of the bill Janey Godley. Although a Glasgow girl through and through it has been absolutely ages since I had seen her perform live. Usually at Fringe time Sheila or Diane vie for the ticket as they, like me, really appreciate her outstanding talents.

Janey was up to her usual high standards on the night. As with Alison before her, she is amazing in her use of language to create a scene. No one needs pictures when she is in full flow, the observational style together with her razor sharp wit are more than enough to conjure the images, making the characters almost palpable.

She seemed to be on stage for only moments before the time had come to finish. One and all were carried along with her on the journey she lead us, and all would I’m sure have carried on far, far further. I may be in for trouble next Fringe, but I intend to stake a claim to review her 2010 show I enjoyed her 20 minutes so much.

This set unfortunately brought the evening to an end, and it will be January before the next instalment of Wicked Wenches. That doesn’t mean that all is quiet on the Stand front however. They have a very busy Festive programme which can be found at www.thestand.co.uk I understand that this is now functioning again, so do yourselves a favour it you are in or around Edinburgh or Glasgow check it out.