Before his main 2009 tour starts in September, Michael Mcintyre is doing a number of small gigs to test out material so that he can get a final 2 hour set ready for the main event.

I managed to get tickets to a show he did last night in Farnham, Surrey. When he first came on stage he explains exactly what he's doing; that being him testing out material on us. It was evident throughout the show that he was dipping in and out of various routines to gauge the audience reaction. Sometimes he would begin a story only to stop soon after and move to another topic that perhaps he deemed funnier.

This show was the very first of these 'material test' gigs and it was a real work in progress held together with some adlib and chats with the audience. From a comedy point of view he was really funny and at just under two hours on stage the audience were still screaming for more.

From a writers point of view it was facinating to see a comedian, currently at the top of his game, going through the motions of testing various sets on a live audience to see what worked and what didn't.

If you like Michael Mcintyre and are also curious to see how he handles his work in progress then I would recommend getting to one of these small testing gigs if you can. Unfortunately I don't have any links and they seem to be low key. I only found out about the Farnham one from a friend who goes there regularly.

Def.

Was that at the Maltings? I was there to see Lucy Porter a couple of weeks ago.

Dan

Dan, yes it was at the Maltings. As you know it's practically a school hall holding about 300 people. I think this gives it a really nice almost intimate feel.

Def.

I'm seeing one of these in Reading next week. There were only 125 tickets that went on sale. Really looking forward to it.

Quote: Deferenz @ May 8 2009, 12:04 PM BST

Dan, yes it was at the Maltings. As you know it's practically a school hall holding about 300 people. I think this gives it a really nice almost intimate feel.

Def.

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It was for Lucy Porter. I saw Brendon Burns in one of their smaller theatres. There were 35 of us there! That was intimate. It was about six months after he won the if.comedie award too!

Dan

Woohoo! You get to pay money to see a comic 'trying out stuff'. Perhaps this will catch on and in future we can pay full price to see sound checks, half a movie or even a fully clothed stripper.

Have to agree with Renegade - we don't get paid for posting in critique, do we? If McIntyre wants to try out new stuff, he should do a couple of free secret gigs, then people can get there full money's worth in September.

Yeah, the punchable smug sod.

I can't see anything wrong with going to a test gig. If the performer advertises it as such (which McIntyre correctly did) and you purchase your tickets in full knowledge of this, then who is getting hurt?

Def.

Is he pocketing any of the money? Can see no problem with the venue wanting to make a bit from a big name performing there.

I have to say I was a bit surprised that his warm-up gig in Reading was £25 per ticket when Ross Noble's proper gig the next day is only £20.

However, these gigs are usually longer as they test out all their material so they can whittle it down for the show. And when they are testing it they are performing as they would normally. You're not getting a script to read. It's just he can see the response.

I'll report back after tomorrow.

I don't object to them not being free.
I would have expected the tickets to only be about a tenner at the most though.

Well it was a very enjoyable gig. We were first into the hall so had pick on the seats so we went 2nd row in the middle to avoid getting picked on. Half way through the gig he decided to go through the whole second row, but luckily being a website designer generates no comedy so he moved on.

It was very funny, 90% of the jokes got a full laugh. He said he thought it went better than expected considering he's got 5 months before the tour. I was pleased at how professional he was. No clip board or autocue or any prompts. I went to see Jimmy Carr halfway through his tour and he was still using a clipboard. It was about two hours long, lots of great observations and funny acting.

He also did more impressions than I've seen him do before - not of famous people but regional accents. So I'm glad I went to this, should have been cheaper but I think McIntyre has the talent to join the elite stand-ups so I'm glad I've seen him.

Ross Noble tonight - brilliant.

Just realised there's one of these very near me this week.
I would have gone if I'd known!

Quote: ContainsNuts @ May 13 2009, 9:15 AM BST

Well it was a very enjoyable gig. We were first into the hall so had pick on the seats so we went 2nd row in the middle to avoid getting picked on. Half way through the gig he decided to go through the whole second row, but luckily being a website designer generates no comedy so he moved on.

It was very funny, 90% of the jokes got a full laugh. He said he thought it went better than expected considering he's got 5 months before the tour. I was pleased at how professional he was. No clip board or autocue or any prompts. I went to see Jimmy Carr halfway through his tour and he was still using a clipboard. It was about two hours long, lots of great observations and funny acting.

He also did more impressions than I've seen him do before - not of famous people but regional accents. So I'm glad I went to this, should have been cheaper but I think McIntyre has the talent to join the elite stand-ups so I'm glad I've seen him.

Ross Noble tonight - brilliant.

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Glad you enjoyed it. I was most impressed with his performance. I thought his regional accents were brilliant. Did he do the Northern Ireland bits, where he said how they are trying to increase leisure tourism in the aftermath of all the violence? The joke went something like he rang down to reception to say he was having trouble with his TV and the lady replies 'you think you know what trouble is?' They way he did that, with the accent and its implication, had me gasping for breath.

I would say that his warm up gig is better than some of the proper gigs from other performers I've seen.

I also saw Ross Noble recently and he was excellent. The downside is that I think he sometimes tries to keep a joke going after he should let it die. Overall I would probably put McIntyre's warm-up gig and Ross Noble on a par so that is high praise from me on McIntyre. I would agree that he has the talent to join the elite stand-ups.

Def.