Friday night: Rob Newman's new show, No Planet B, at the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, North London. If you caught his exemplary History Of Oil on More4 (why haven't they repeated it on C4 yet?), you'll be au fait with his current style (illustrated political seminar meets music hall). No Planet B is his History of the World Backwards, an insanely over-ambitious conceit that sprawls over two hours, with interval, taking in slides, impressions and songs. Lots of songs. Here's how it opens:

The history of the world backwards. What does it look like? From a distance we may see the mighty sweeps of population. We gaze in horror upon American Indians as in 1900 they begin a process of ethnic cleansing, so relentless and ruthless that by 1492 there is not one single European living on the North American landmass.

Approach a little closer and we observe how a man's life changes his character. In the southern cone of Africa, Nelson Mandela enters prison a sweet-natured Spice Girl fan but emerges from long incarceration an embittered terrorist bent on the armed overthrow of the state.

Closer still and we see... ourselves! Look! Look ... look ...!

This mix of Martin Amis's Time's Arrow with 1066 And All That fake history is, of course, shot through with satirical barbs at the way we live now, as oil is undiscovered and technology is uninvented, without which, it would not be a Rob Newman show. Whether you like him or not, whether you agree with his extreme liberal, anti-coporate views or not (and I think you know where I stand), you have to respect his total reinvention, from early 90s comedy heartthrob to cut-me-do-I-not-bleed-Seattle anti-globalisation activist. I witnessed the first wave of metamorphosis with his awkward but admirable Resistance Is Fertile show at Edinburgh in 2000, where traces of the old Rob held back the new Rob, but in the intervening years, not least through his rather beautiful and difficult novel, The Fountain At The Centre Of The World, he has achieved a kind of peace. Which is to say, he's fucking angry, and prepared to walk as well as talk for the causes he cares deeply about, but his comedy - or at least his performance (as some of this is not funny, and not intended to be) - has found its own niche as a result. I wish I'd seen him tour with Mark Thomas. That sounds like a good match, albeit they attack similar monsters with different tools.

I have to declare an interest. I know Rob of old. I met him when he first made inroads as a circuit impressionist (doing Ronnie Corbett and Jonathan Ross, oh and the Ayatollah Khomeini) into radio. I interviewed him so often for NME and Vox we started to see each other socially. It was a happy time, but tinged with problems, as I was still a journalist at the end of the night, Rob had his own insecurities, and our friendship fractured after a review I wrote of the sub-standard Mary Whitehouse Experience book (its chief crimes: bad sub-editing and a clash of egos among the four contributors, by which entries in the mock encyclopaedia were initialled to indicate who had written them, which went against the collaborative grain, I felt). So we necessarily drifted apart. He retreated from the limelight. But it's been pleasant to see him again, and I'm delighted that his career has found new rails. Smaller shows, smaller audiences (appreciative ones, judging by the Tricycle run), but bigger gestures.

No Planet B is worth catching when it tours, as it must. Rob has a lovely singing voice, and the accompanied music, very much in the style of Tom Waits (ukelele, accordian, acoustic guitar, junkyard percussion), is haunting. But there's a lot of it, so be prepared, and the narrative, weighed down by the high concept and a running love story thread, does occasionally buckle. But you don't get this much information and invention in the average stand-up show, so value for money is not an issue. He's a likeable tour guide, looks dashing in a stovepipe hat, and his Edwyn Collins impression is a show-stopper.

I hope to God comedy audiences aren't as dumb as they make out ...