The US economy may be headed south, but thankfully its comedy stock is still riding high, notably in the form of Rich Hall. The Montana comedian has become a household name in the UK in recent years appearing on TV comedy shows like QI. He is also a perennial favourite in Oxford.

Half of his show is devoted to smart stand-up delivered in a characteristically downbeat, rambling style which he describes as "saying intelligent things stupidly". Hall clearly admires the British and gets laughs from describing our eccentricities, particularly our musn't grumble' approach to terrorism. He also riffs amusingly on the differences between the US and the UK. Politics is also a theme and inevitably President Bush doesn't escape without some laughs at his expense: "George Bush is planning to build the biggest ever presidential library in Texas when he retires . . . just how many Garfield books can there be?" Where Hall really shines, though, is his interaction with the audience, displaying a lightspeed wit to produce laughter from improvised lines.

The second half of the show features Hall performing as his jailbird alter-ego Otis Lee Crenshaw, as whom Hall won his Perrier Award in 2000. It is devoted to bizarre but hilarious comedy songs like the IT Blues.

Even the few moments when a joke falls flat are a gift to Hall. He highlights them to the audience, and uses his wit to turn these into new laughs. As a whole, the new tour feels polished and both sections of his show are consistently funny and well received.

Afterwards Hall told us he was pleased with the reaction to his new material: "It's been a good tour, I've got a lot of inspiration from the audience . . . people are interested in hearing what you observe about them."

And he says his Oxford fans are likely to be seeing a lot more of him: "I'm doing a documentary for the BBC in June about Western films and how they relate to American history . . . then building up to the Edinburgh Festival and the Otis show."