“Just a random group of people in a school when they shouldn't even be here” – that's how comedian Trevor Lock described Tiverton’s latest monthly comedy night, writes Richard Wevill.

Having overrun by 20 minutes, he dubbed this the Occupy Education movement, alluding to the new venue which the show found itself in last Monday.

There was nothing random about this gathering of course, the sizeable crowd came to enjoy the first laughs of the 2012 Comedy Hall season courtesy of three top stand-ups. They were certainly not at Tiverton High School for the draw prizes, which even by usual standards, were of debatable merit.

With a trio of South East comedians there were inevitably some jokes to be had for the townies about life in the country. Compere Chris Dangerfield wasted no time in wondering if his paying pubic had “tied up their goats for the night” and left their looms at home before coming out, while headliner Trevor Lock was more distracted by a snort of laughter which he was convinced originated from a pig whose owner thought nothing of bringing animals to live entertainment.

No one sends up Tiverton better than the self-depreciating Tiverton audience though.

When Trevor said his grandad used to live in Tiverton, an audience member demanded to know whereabouts, another audience member heckled the first by calling out “you're probably related”.

The comedy veered off in surreal directions during the night, as exemplified by opening act Joey Page, a fast-talking likeable sort with distinctive hat perched jauntily on his head.

Like Noel Fielding he doesn’t so much tell jokes, as riff on increasingly oddball and fantastical stories, but Joey also did audience interaction, challenging anyone to a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors and closing his set with his inspired short play Hands.

With a style that often undercut his jokes through interruption and changing details, it took a few minutes to tune into the headliner’s comedy wavelength. But Lock was soon scoring plenty of laughs, and by the end vowed to return to Tiverton again one day, if only to ensure that the boy who had never seen a hedgehog got to see the real deal.

The comics scored more points by making their way to the exit to chat to the audience as they filed out after an enjoyable show.