When a fund-raising line-up boasts the words "special guests", my heart sinks. This is invariably a euphemism for "we haven't got a bill yet".
But last night's humorous contribution to Roger Daltrey's Teenage Cancer Trust week certainly delivered the goods, with a barnstorming cameo from Ricky Gervais.
A topsy-turvy running order defied logic, with the best coming first. Steve Coogan opened proceedings resplendent in synthetic fibre as compere Alan Partridge.
He was swiftly followed by Matt Lucas and David Walliams, who gave a beautifully grubby thumbnail sketch from their BBC hit Little Britain. Then, without fuss, Gervais appeared.
It was rich when he mocked others who use charity events for self-promotion, when Gervais happens to have an impending West End run to sell, but he deserves the benefit of the doubt.
Particularly as he was so good at satirising the showbiz compassion game: "Everyone is appearing for expenses only. I came by helicopter." Ten minutes of sour genius followed. Gervais's persona and Coogan's creation have much in common. Both are a chilling mix of ignorance, arrogance and squirm-worthy remarks.
Partridge was also on vintage form, engaging mouth before brain and briefly appearing dressed as comedy terrorist "Allah Partridge".
Rob "Marion and Geoff " Brydon was another pre-interval highlight with his Spiderman, who scales skyscrapers but has difficulty getting out of baths.
The second half was a conveyor belt of rising stars.
In action, Jimmy Carr resembled a foul-mouthed Tony Blair, wringing his hands while telling behind-the-bike-sheds gags. Simon Pegg played the original Milky Bar Kid, now a deranged adult.
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Little Britain's greatest hits skits that punctuated the evening were greeted with justifiable hysteria. Walliams is gloriously deadpan while Lucas is every inch a star, positively glowing as inarticulate schoolgirl Vicky Pollard and solitary Welsh homosexual Daffyd.
Somebody had to spoil the fun. Cue the Rutles's Neil Innes and his loud-shirted middle-aged mates. He was too accurate when he said that if the other performers were the cream of British comedy this was "the lumpy custard".
After a couple of bars from the famed Beatles parodists, the audience started leaving. Never has a show opened so brilliantly and closed so pitifully.
Coogan is reportedly about to decamp to Hollywood because here he is pigeonholed as Partridge. This gig may have been the last appearance of the dreadful DJ. If so he certainly went with a bang, even if the gig ended with a whimper.
