Michael McIntyre

Review: Michael McIntyre: Showtime

Those who see comedy as the medium of individuality - of the oddball comic looking into an unfamiliar world - will likely leave here disappointed, but that's fine. Michael McIntyre has this audience in the palm of his hand, and on tonight's effort they're here to stay.

Michael McIntyre interview

The comedian Michael McIntyre on how he overcame the scorn of his peers to become a record-breaking, stadium-filling stand-up.

Michael McIntyre: Showtime - review

BANG! Straight in. First 10 minutes and Michael McIntyre has reasserted his position as the UK's biggest stand-up.

Review: Michael McIntyre, The O2, London

It's classic McIntyre - instantly relatable, neatly done, just original enough. He's certainly not the first person to find tiny hotel kettles irritating, but he's the only one in The 02 to have made millions, and millions laugh, out of sharing his irritation - and it would be churlish indeed to hate him for that.

Michael McIntyre - review

To finish, there's an anecdote about a horrific trip to the dentist, whose anaesthetised hero is hauled across London bloodied, dismayed and slobbering his name inarticulately at bemused medics. It's a minor masterpiece of comic storytelling, against which the first half's cliches look tawdrier than ever.

Michael McIntyre: Showtime! review

Big-hearted Michael McIntyre is very welcome back. The boyo done good so far.

James Everett adds his voice to the Fringe ticket price

'What if Michael McIntyre was charging £50? Is it then OK to pay £25 for Stewart Lee?'

In a different setting, it's easy to imagine Rob Brydon being persuasive, teasing the most difficult and troubling of secrets away from celeb bosoms.

A lively half-hour chat show is not the place for that, however. So as it returns for a third series, Rob contents himself with comedy talk from Michael McIntyre and festival talk with Alex James, who's about to run a food and music event with Jamie Oliver on his Oxfordshire estate. Lovers of chat-show bingo should fill their game cards with the words "Blur", "farm" and "cheese".

Music comes from the racing car-loving Scottish singer Amy Macdonald.

Rob Brydon's chat show - an engaging mixture of the comfy and the surreal - returns for a third series. Whether Brydon has been persuaded to part with the bright brown shoes he inexplicably wears with his smart blue suit remains to be seen. His guests include comedian Michael McIntyre, and cheese-making Telegraph columnist and Blur bassist, Alex James, with Scottish singer Amy MacDonald performing her new single.

Britain's Oldest Stand-Up is an irresistibly charming documentary chronicling 90 year-old Jack Woodward's return to the stage after an absence of nearly half a century. The venue he has his heart set on is the Hammersmith Apollo in London, where he has admired the young upstart Michael McIntyre perform on the BBC's Live at the Apollo show.

And guess what? He lands a five-minute gig there as the warm-up for Ed Byrne. Armed with some new material supplied by comedy writer Les Keen, Jack heads for his date with destiny.

Nervous? Not a bit of it. Jack is excited at the prospect of playing to a 3,000-strong London audience, who hold no terrors for a comic who has played working men's clubs in Gateshead where hecklers threw coal.

"I heard you clapping and got here as quick as I could," is Woodward's opening line, and the laughs just keep coming. Turns out he's a pretty good comic.

My advice to anyone thinking of booking him is - don't delay.