Dara O’Briain, Concert Hall, Reading

I’ve been a fairly long-term fan of Dara O’Briain since seeing him host Have I Got News For You, being on QI, and also the set he did on Jack Dee at the Apollo. So when I saw he was doing a UK tour, and playing at Reading’s Concert Hall, I got the tickets pretty quickly.

So quickly, in fact, that we were on the second row of the audience. Which would’ve been great, except that we arrived ten minutes after he’d started. Oh bugger. So yes, the next ten minutes or so involved Yours Truly being quizzed by Yer Man. Thankfully I’m not the kind of person who curls up and dies under interrogation, so I was OK – but all the same, it’s kind of weird, being pointed out and having a conversation with the star of the evening. Bloody funny, though.

And yes, he really was the star of the evening. It’s nice to see a comedian interacting with the audience, finding out stuff about people there, and then using that in the show, rather than just going through a scripted exercise which, while still funny, still loses something in comparison to the way this one was done.

So, so many subjects were covered, including (in no particular order) Air Traffic Control, the champion cow-milker, Wensleydale cows, Bracknell car-thieves (admittedly one of my own contributions), religion, marriage, Fosters, rugby, and many many others.

If you get a chance, go and see the tour. Yer man’s feckin’ awesome.