A RECURRING theme in Russell Howard's show was small victories.

The 37-year-old Bristolian comedian was suffering from a sore throat, which gave out at some points, but he said that nothing would've stopped him from putting on this gig in Bournemouth.

It was full of wickedly-funny belly laughs including poking fun at reality TV star Joey Essex, presenter Piers Morgan, and his entertaining impression of the US president, Donald Trump.

But most of his material came from his own family, including his brother, mum, and his late grandfather, performed in the round to a sold-out crowd of 4,000 people.

Nearly all of his gags are completely inappropriate for a family newspaper and it certainly wasn't a show that you would take your very young or very old relatives to see, but he also had some very serious messages in his show.

He came up with some majestic ideas for how to deal with some of the tough and sad issues that today's young people can be faced with, including the theory that they no longer have heroes to look up to.

Russell said that sometimes those closest to us can often be the ones who remind us what it is to be alive. He also said that even in our darkest moments, there is always something that can be found to lighten the mood.

Amid all the doom and gloom in the news, here was Russell to show us that things will get better. His first of three nights in Bournemouth for his Round The World tour was an even more wacky, unedited and certainly uninhibited version of his Good News show on the BBC.

While he didn't come back for an encore due to his poorly health, he had already left the audience eating out of the palm of his hand.

A small victory for a comedian on a Monday night, which is something he seemed genuinely proud of, and it was a big barrel of laughs for the lucky ticket-holders who made up the audience.