There is no faulting Stephen K Amos for crowd-pleasing. Within seconds of strutting on stage as wigged-out soul brother Jesse Aloysius Jones he has a boisterous audience joining his call-and-response antics and pointing the finger at sinners in the room.

The problem comes when he departs slightly awkwardly and returns as himself. This seasoned stand-up is a fabulous compere but he cannot quite complete the journey from superb short bursts of banter to a more considered, themed narrative.

In More Of Me he sets out to explore his experiences of racism and how he has coped by "finding the funnies". And there were plenty of funnies last night, alongside an awful lot of easy laughs from seamlessly delivered kneejerk stereotyping. Northerners are backward, air hostesses slam their heads into their make-up bags, there is more culture in a yoghurt pot than in Australia.

It is just a pity Amos cannot make more out of his serious central thesis. He recalls being called "nignog" at school because the word was used in Seventies sitcom Love Thy Neighbour and 30 years later found himself working on EastEnders with one of the old show's stars. This little arc certainly packs plenty of punch. If he could resist opting for the lowest common denominator elsewhere he could be a knockout.

• Until 13 Oct (www.sohotheatre.com).