MARK Steel made an impassioned plea for us to put a bit more passion in our lives at the Wedgewood Rooms last night.

His hour-and-a-half show covered topics as diverse as Caesar's sexuality, Fareham train station, Celine Dion and George W Bush as he railed against apathy.

And he avoided that easy fallback of so may comedians of humiliating audience members - much to the relief of those of us who were sitting at the front.

To an extent he was preaching to the converted - it's fairly safe to assume that most people who go to see a socialist comedian will agree with you if you say Margaret Thatcher was bad.

But he wasn't given a totally easy ride by the audience, several of whom didn't seem quite sure how to behave in public and felt the need to yell, rather than heckle.

But despite some irritating interruptions, he rallied and left the audience cheering for more.