LAUGHTER filled the room on Thursday night as the Old Fire Station hosted Blackburn comedian Tez Ilyas.

The Pakistani British comedian went down a treat at his first headline gig in Carlisle.

It was part of his Vicked Tour, which was originally meant to happen two years ago.

It had been postponed because of the pandemic.

This was my first time seeing Tez perform and was also my first time at the Old Fire Station.

He opened the show with a short introduction, before passing the mic to Manchester comedian Jamie Hutchison.

I was a little apprehensive beforehand, as stand-up comedy can be hit and miss, but Jamie was hilarious.

His set focused on the struggles of being ginger - something which I can relate to myself.

A particularly funny part was when he described going out with another redhead, but having to call it off after other people thought that they were siblings and being unable to bring a "pure-bred ginger" into the world.

The crowd loved him and was truly warmed up for Tez taking the stage after the break.

Tez's set was perhaps a bit provocative at times, but it went down really well.

He blamed his South Asian mother for making him lazy by doing everything for him as a youngster.

He also joked that people should be allowed to use racial slurs or offensive words if someone has done them wrong, only to conclude that it wouldn't work because there would be nothing to use against straight white men.

After the gig, Tez said: "I really enjoyed it. When you’re going to a place that you haven’t been to much before, when you don’t have an established audience, you don’t know what to expect.

"But that was lovely. It was really, really nice. The audience was enthusiastic, they stayed for the whole show.

"Sometimes there are certain ideas that aren’t comfortable, to go with the lighter stuff, but they stayed for the whole show and I really appreciate that.

"I’ll definitely be back, I really enjoyed it. Next time we’ll sell out the whole thing."