RHOD Gilbert is a very funny man. Fact.

The ‘shouty Welshman’ could stand on stage reading logarithm tables and have the audience in pieces at his feet.

He descended on Bridport to try out new material in advance of a major UK tour next spring. Called Work in Progress, it revolved around the anger management issues that plagued him earlier in the year and which were catalogued in the diary a counsellor advised him to keep.

Rhod loped out of the wings pint in hand, taller and thinner than he looks on telly and Youtube. He was greeted ecstatically by the sell-out crowd as he launched into the customary ‘where are you from’ banter and summed up Bridport as being inhabited by ‘mentals, hippies and posh people’.

And then we got down to the serious business of comedy.

It turns out that Rhod’s incendiary triggers are many and varied and range from ‘considerate’ builders to electric toothbrushes with built-in timers and counters. All this before you get anywhere near the problems posed by having to buy twin packs of vegetables in supermarkets when you only want a solitary spud.

Each complaint was delivered with Gilbert’s trademark blizzard of fury as he railed against the conspiracy of stupidity that lurks to confound and infuriate around every corner.

He has made wrath his calling card, yet has so far avoided blunting its impact with familiarity. How much longer he can keep it going effectively remains to be seen, but here’s hoping that his well of invective never runs dry.