Arts Diary: COMEDY Keith Carter/ Rawhide Comedy Club, Albert Dock,Liverpool.

Byline: MIKE CHAPPLE

THE Rawhide is still one of the hottest tickets in town,and unsurprisingly Baby Blue was packed tight for the return of Liverpool's KeithCarter in his persona as Toxteth scally Nige.

First, though, there was more than adequate support from Scotsman Dougie Dunlop,Tony Burgess, the cheeky elfin-faced Mancunian with the manic titter, and an excellent MC,Mick Ferry.

Rawhide has a built up a repu-tation for nurturing good,homegrown crowd-controlling warmup talent but Ferry, a relative outsider from Oldham,effortlessly won over the Liverpool audience.

Harnessing a big-mouthed heckler nurse called Julie with ripostes that transformed her from menace to mere foil, this dead spit for a hangdog Timothy Spall -a comparison he has no doubt got sick of,but an endearing one nonetheless -launched a salvo of pithily grumpy anecdotes.

The best of these was a rant about how easily kids these days get bored during school holidays ``BORED!!!'' screamed a disgusted Ferry.``I remember when I was a kid a dead bumble bee could keep you occupied for three weeks!''

It was a great primer for the entrance of Carter, whose stance and timing with the slack-jawed Nige has been so perfected that he can have an audience hypnotised with laughter by just glaring at them without a word spoken.

There was a feeling that this was a mere stroll for Carter, a taut ``best of Nige'' compilation, truncated from last year's acclaimed hour long play Cigs Drugs and Rock `n'Roll.

All the old favourites were here including the batteries gag, the crate of Lemsips on the head and the two beautifully if revoltingly crafted songs devoted to the gran with no eyeballs and the eponymously titled Slag of a girlfriend.

It had both Nige veterans and newcomers in the crowd squawking with disgusted delight during a half hour that should provide a perfect platform for a confident Carter to build on.

We can hardly wait.