Michael McIntyre - Work in Progress

Self professed ‘Fat Chinese Man lookalike’ Michael McIntyre was the comedy buzz of 2008/9. With a 54 date arena tour of the UK (including a brief stopover at Dublin’s Olympia theatre) the funnyman played to over 1million people. His DVD Hello Wembley saw him sell over a million copies and rocket to the top of DVD sales for Christmas 2009.

So, when McIntyre announced he was doing a run of ‘Work in Progress’ gigs at London’s Leicester Square theatre, tickets were snapped up by fans. Not to mention the exceptionally low price of £10 being less than the price of buying his DVD. The venue was brilliant, just off Leicester Sq, the basement comedy club could hold about 200-300 people and was perfectly intimate. The show had been moved from a smaller room in the same venue which could hold less than 100, and as a result extra tickets had been put on sale at the door.

McIntyre’s support slot was filled by John Gordillo. Gordillo explained the pretense of these gigs before doing his own act. Basically a new series of Michael’s Comedy Roadshow is being prepared for the Beeb and these shows are the dry runs of the new material before taking it out on the road. The various support slots during these Work in Progress shows are being filled by the comedians who may ultimately end up on the roadshow themselves.

Last year's Comedy Roadshow team

Gordillo’s slot was in the style of McIntyre himself. Poking fun at his toff nature and painting charactures of his family namely his cliched Spanish father who is unable to say the L word. The jokes meandered into a discussion on communism somehow, with Gordillo getting a schooling from an audience member or two. Gordillo himself is set to appear on the Roadshow and should be entertaining with more practise of his routine.

McIntyre took the stage while Gordillo was still on it. There was a definite vibe of friendship between the guys and when Gordillo left he sat stage-left making notes for McIntyre as he required e.g. we’ll leave that one out (referring to misfired jokes) Michael talked Opticians, being recognised with his new fame and the terrifying prospects of watching Jeremy Kyle and Loose Women on 3D TV.

The highlights of the show were a jibe on daytime TV advertising and how it targets the type of audience who watch daytime TV with ads for slankets/snuggies, cash4gold, incontinency pads and Activia yoghurts to help with bloating. He also ribbed on an appearance he made on the BBC’s CBeebies channel for children on a show called The Bedtime Hour, which you can watch here on iPlayer. He also talked about his upcoming appearance on the Royal Variety show and his intention to make Prince Charles list off various types of pasta dishes in his royal accent for his own amusement.

The crowd were in convulsions of laughter and loved McIntyre’s new stuff. The entire show was comprised of new material and lasted about an hour. It was clear that there were still some wrinkles that were being smoothened before the routine was road-ready. Towards the end of the show he shared a joke with us that he assured us wont make it onto the Roadshow. During an episode of BBC sitcom ‘Outnumbered’ they slagged him off when one of the characters was seen watching the Hello Wembley DVD, another asked ‘why is the sound on the tv off?’ to which he replied ‘because it’s Michael McIntyre’. McIntyre explained his experience of seeing himself being the butt of the joke while watching TV with his wife. Then said on the new series of the Comedy Roadshow he was going to start off by saying;

‘Welcome to the Comedy Roadshow, except you writers of Outnumbered - you’re all f**ks. Oh, that’s right, you can’t hear me because you have the sound off!’

There are more dates still on sale throughout June. See Leicester Square Theatre for details.