I first saw Simon perform in the summer of 1997 - very close to the start of his career - and he was clearly a natural talent, displaying great poise in delivering his precisely written lines about the Spice Girls or pierced tongues.
There was a sardonic, young-fogey feel to his comedy and the promise of much more to come.
Since then, he has developed from caustic young man into fully fledged grumpy old git - to great comic effect.
Wisely, he had packed out the Theatre Royal with friends and other recipients of free tickets and even started the evening quipping: "Some of you have even paid, which is bizarre!" If I had been one of them, perhaps I might not have been so amused.
Simon promised us a reprise of his comedy journey over the past 18 years which I was looking forward to, having not particularly kept up on his progress, apart from seeing him perform once at the Edinburgh Fringe in the late 1990s.
In truth, it turned out to be more his geographical journey from Peckham to Kings Cross to Brixton to Hove, and his personal journey into a relationship and what he found to be the horrors of parenting, that he had in mind.
Undoubtedly, there were some brilliant lines: "The one advantage of being homeless is that you can choose where you live" or "pro bono - work done for self-congratulatory reasons and where the pop star took his name from".
For much of the show the audience was in hysterics.
His is the comedy of condescension and rudeness delivered with the eloquence and erudite turn of phrase of Oscar Wilde. I absolutely loved the word "obesycle", meaning a mobility scooter.
However, I sensed something quite unctuous about Evans' manner, a veneer of charm barely masking genuine disinterest or disdain beneath. He has a way of making one feel acknowledged and discarded at the same time.
I was also struck by how very different he looks compared with in the 1990s, when he was a handsome young smoker (pictured). He is 49 now and, I guess, could pass as 10 years older.
His delivery has also changed, now owing a debt to Leonard Rossiter in the style of Reggie Perrin more than Rupert Rigsby.
And when he donned his designer spectacles and started talking about the demise of the High Street, he started to look and sound like Reg Holdsworth, the ebullient erstwhile supermarket manager in Coronation Street played by Ken Morley, who, incidentally, campaigned to save local shops.
The captain's hat / road rage routine was superb - and I loved the Ernest Shackleton encore.
Overall, it was a very good performance, even though Simon seemed to be going somewhat hoarse towards the end of the show. He is a very talented comic.
I wish Simon Evans well with his DVD sales - it will be a worthy stocking-filler.
****
Ollie (Joe) Wilson
