The one-night wonder Ken Cheng: Best Dad Ever, did not fail to impress, and well deserved all of the attention and hype that lead up to it. Ken really lived up to the title of being one of the best and brightest comedians to come out of Cambridge – mostly I think, as a result of his relaxed stage presence and the huge supportive band of fans he has picked up along the way.

“It was clever, and I actually felt I learnt something by the time midnight came and went”

The ADC was packed full of students and the crowd atmosphere was electric before the show had even begun. It was clear: everyone loved Ken. Colin Rothwell gave a witty introduction to Ken on the perils of Aldi, exuding confidence and charisma, despite having to be the warm-up to the main event. He did a good job, considering the pressure on coming on before Ken (and also the high thespian turn-out in the audience).

Ken’s stand-up had a different swing to it than his normal comedy, which is what made it so effective. It touched on personal issues such as his childhood and family life, which could have come across more as a sombre monologue if not presented in Ken’s hilarious style. To put it bluntly, Ken presented himself as quite a strange child, obsessing over lambs and Excel spreadsheets. But, reciting stories he wrote from his childhood, Ken had the audience in stitches. As an audience, we felt sympathetic but still laughed: with him, not at him.

“It seemed a bit off-track at times, but the punchline was always worth the slight detour from one of his stories”

As well as drawing on his own experiences, Ken also poked fun at everyday phrases, aided, unusually, by flow-charts. It seemed a bit off-track at times, but the punchline was always worth the slight detour from one of his stories. He used graphs, shapes and explained complex numbers – which to the non-mathmo audience members seemed quite daunting – but in a way that squeezed humour out of the seemingly bland. I mean who could come up with a fat tetrahedron as a distant cousin of a sugar cube? Or even make square numbers and times tables seem sexy? In finding ‘order in chaos’, the maths-phobic me came out of the show with a somewhat deeper appreciation for numbers.

At times, the script was puzzling. However, the show ultimately hinged on this lack of cohesion and even though it seemed rather messy and confusing at points, all ends were tied up eventually in a clever and inventive way. It was clear Ken had put a lot of time and effort into the script (coupled with the rather swanky PowerPoint presentation) and consequently appeared fully in control of the direction he was going in, even if it seemed quite odd.

Toblerone, Taken and trolling the Telegraph

It was clever, and I actually felt I learnt something by the time midnight came and went, despite rarely having stopped giggling throughout. His stand-up balanced the jokes with grace and intellect and this was well received by the audience. The night was funny, the script was very Cambridge: a perfect, ADC-friendly Week 0 start to comedy this term.

Ken could just stand on stage and people would laugh. There is something endearing and utterly hilarious about the way he presents himself. It was longer than expected, but no-one seemed to care: the audience were completely content to stay chuckling along. It was a great night, and Ken no doubt left the ADC audience wanting more