THE name suggests a man in disguise, afraid to reveal his true identity.

But Ian Cognito was aggressive, challenging and probably the most outspoken comic to appear here in recent memory.

Crowds spilled from City Screen feverishly discussing a controversial comic who appalled, then appealed in equal measure.

Before the storm, wide-eyed Welshman Mark Watson revealed his comedy cloth was cut by a more liberal tailor.

Immature political commentary was thrown into the melting pot with some brilliant observations.

Razor-sharp swipes on freakish lightning-strike deaths and a scathing attack on the Microsoft "paperclip" icon were a winner for the Swansea funny man.

In an unusual twist, he also asked the audience to grade his performance. An audience poll rated him eight out of ten - but his assured stage presence marks him out as a future star.

York firefighter Dan Siron took to the stand-up stage for the first time.

Although he didn't depart in a blaze of glory, his scatological humour and relationship gags did leave some embers burning.

Less a small skip blaze, more a human fireball, Cognito's scorched earth set didn't take prisoners.

Not for the easily shocked, his four-letter tirades - which prompted one walk-out - were interspersed by a spate of ingenious gags.

Prowling the stage like a drunken panther, his tales of emotional torture may have grown tiresome, but his incendiary political material proved a rip-roaring success.

Cognito may make the jaw drop - at least he got people talking.

Updated: 11:04 Tuesday, November 16, 2004