Funny Women Cafe Royal, London W1
Among the many things Tessa Jowell ought to have done recently and didn't was turn up as guest of honour at the annual Funny Women gala in aid of domestic violence charity V-Day. Presumably she paused to imagine the rich feast of possible headlines before making her excuses, but her absence certainly provided plenty of material.
'She'd actually signed a contract to be here,' said Sandi Toksvig, 'but apparently no one told her what was in it.' (Incidentally, I'm not sure what it says about our culture that Dead Ringer Jan Ravens's impersonation of Sandi Toksvig got a bigger laugh than Sandi Toksvig's act. Perhaps it just says something about Sandi Toksvig.)
There was a strong Anglo-Asian presence, with impressive performances from Ayesha Hazarika, Shappi Khorsandi and Shazia Mirza, and a guest appearance by Meera Syal. As Mirza observed, 'That's a lot of chapattis not getting made tonight.'
The evening's masterly compere Jo Caulfield managed to get in more than a few sly pokes at International Women's Day, but the best joke of the night came from Khorsandi, who told a story about an Israeli friend coming to visit London. 'She was coming through immigration and they asked her, "Occupation?" "No," she said, irritated, "I'm just here for a holiday."'
