Timing is everything in comedy. Obviously it’s a great pity that current events made Iranian-born Shappi Khorsandi’s appearance so topical. But then she has been advancing from the horizons of stand-up rapidly to the point that she’s everywhere: a national newspaper interview on the day of the show, with Michael McIntyre on TV the previous evening and a scheduled outing with Jonathan Ross this week. She was on Have I Got News For You recently and will take her show to the Edinburgh Fringe.

All of which big stuff made it the more pleasing to see her in the small arena that is the North Wall. There’s a clever, kittenish side to Shappi Khorsandi, a sparkling freshness that makes you almost believe that she’s adlibbing: she’s in the same league as Lucy Porter for that. And what confidence she showed from the outset: asking us to join her in a minute’s silence “for those fighting for freedom in Iran”, she looked sheepishly up after a few seconds and told us she’d never done one of these before and hadn’t started timing the minute. That’s brave, and better than striking the ‘right on’ attitude that others would adopt.

There was mention of the appalling events going on at the moment, but not too much: “They advocate free speech, but then there’s no freedom afterwards . . . it’s a bit deathy”; “if you muddle Iran and Iraq, we’re the one with weapons of mass destruction.”

But her sharp middle-class whimsy during this short set got her through a blip-in-the-making when she discovered that a couple she was gently going for in the front row was gay. It also allowed her to hit one obvious target – “I’m fearful of teenagers; I read the Daily Mail” – and another less usual one: “How important was your university? Did you read a subject, or do it?”

Oh, did I mention that her first book is coming out next week?