Sean Lock

There are comedians who use their shows to investigate themes, to go on sociopolitical odysseys, to fight the power and say the unsayable. And then there are comedians who just get on stage and say things they find funny.

Sean Lock is one of the latter. And he's about as intelligent and inventive as any comedian working today.

Not that he advertises any of these qualities. Milling around on stage in his brown shirt and beige suit, Lock likes us to take him for an ordinary bloke: "I didn't go to university," he tells us, "I went to the pub."

His wisdom is casually deployed, but taken to extremes. He tells us about a pub quiz he went to, a story that deforms into a ludicrous explanation – told straight – of how Beethoven wrote music. Then he talks of climate change, fuelled by genuine concern for his daughters, but rendered with suave overstatement: "Some people are quite happy to fly to the shops, aren't they? To buy some patio heaters."

Lock's gags are good, his fluency is fearsome. Like all the best comics, he can segue from one discrete idea to another and make the connection feel not just plausible but urgent. He keeps his Young Michael Caine tones level as he rubbishes pretension, rudeness, puking ladettes and the £757 million marvel that is Wembley – "Bargain!". And he does so with language that is ingenious but concise.

His lack of flash can work against him. Some of his pauses break the spell. And, as a brilliant improviser – the skill that's brought him fame on television shows such as 8 Out of Ten Cats and TV Heaven, Telly Hell – he could work the crowd even more.

But he plies his observational absurdism with a casual exactitude that you more commonly find in the best American comedians. Five years after his last stand-up show, Sean Lock is back at the top of his game – smart and stupid like nobody else.

— Next show tomorrow at the Artrix, Bromsgrove (01527 577330). Tour details from www.offthekerb.co.uk