I went to The Hallam FM Arena in Sheffield on Sunday night to see comedian Michael McIntyre.
The first time I saw him, I also met him at the Royal Variety Performance in 2008 at The London Palladium. It was at the after show party and Michael was stood by himself in a corner.
My friend and I went over to speak to him to tell him he was very funny. He was delighted and replied “Do you think they got it? I often wonder what people think”
We told him how entertaining he was and enjoyed a laugh and a picture with him.
I’ve seen him on TV several times since in his programmes recorded at the Manchester Apollo. As soon as I found out he was coming to Sheffield I bought my tickets, which was months in advance – very organised for me.
I haven’t been to see a comedian at such a large arena, there was a 10,000 capacity crowd. Usually when I’ve watched Alan Carr, Ken Dodd or Jimmy Carr it’s been in theatres. When we took our seats my first comment was these seats are rubbish and when he appeared on stage he was no bigger than my thumb.
It was almost as if he’d heard what I’d said as his opening line was “ I bet you thought your seats were terrible when you sat down and said I could have watched you on DVD and not had to come here and pay for parking!”
What was great though about the stage set were 3 huge screens behind him, with 3 cameras at different angles which really worked well, so you did actually feel much closer to him in the end.
His routine was totally new and different material to anything I’d heard before, and very relevant reality type humour which I love anyway. He did come across camper than ever though – I think he’s cottoned on that his audience love it but he does make it clear that he’s straight and married with 2 kids.
I’d definitely recommend anyone to go and see the show, but don’t be put off by the size of the venue.