Comedy just got bigger. US legend Chris Rock smashed the record for the largest-ever UK stand-up show with an audience of 15,900 on Friday. Lee Evans’s previous record of 10,108 feels like an intimate soirée by comparison.

The 2005 Oscars host hit the ground running, striding onstage with his post-credit crunch complaint that even tramps are refusing his dollars. While some riffs, first aired here in January, felt well-worn, there were plenty of crisp one-liners. Comparing the lunatic behaviour of Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse, he noted that “at least your crazy person can sing”.

This was very much a show of two halves. There is something disquieting about the fact that the same comedian who delivers lacerating material about racism can be doing unreconstructed gags about gold-digging women 30 minutes later but Rock is so persuasive that even his functional material mostly hit home.

Ultimately, comedy is about connection and will always work better in smaller spaces. But Rock is so good he has to play megagigs. If he set up shop in a theatre, he’d be here all year to meet the demand.

6 and 7 September. Hammersmith Apollo (www.ticketzone.co.uk, 0870 606 3400)