UK COMEDY
Peter Kaye is without any shadow of a doubt a national treasure and his career constitutes a comedy rarity, as his unrivalled success does not emanate from any kind of Oxbridge bias. Kaye is unique in comedy terms and his current live stadium dates are continuing apace. Mark Ritchie joined the crowds to see Mr Kaye in action recently at the Manchester Arena.

1.2 million tickets sold and thousands of people attending every single show, so time for me to go along and check out the arena atmosphere and see what a Peter Kaye arena show offers. After a career hiatus, which seemed to have many people convinced that Peter Kaye was seriously ill, Kaye returned triumphantly in telly terms, although there is rather less to the man physically than there once was. Aside from a one-line gag about his involvement with Slimming World, there is no mention of his svelte and slimline look. One or two frankly odd references to the anti-depression and anxiety drug Sertraline and the claims he made about its effects on the male libido came either as a jolting admission, or perhaps it was said with comic intent?
The first half of the first half of the show, if you see what I mean, was the all-familiar audience involvement quotient, which is such a feature in any Peter Kaye show. A string of apparently new routines followed, before something frankly bizarre occurred. ‘We’ve never done this before’, announced Peter, ‘We are going to give another comedian a chance to see what it is like entertaining a full arena’. On walked ‘another comedian’. I am not even going to reveal his identity here. He was one the telly talent-show performers from one of the Simon Cowell vehicles whose name, even after I had googled it, I still did not recognise. Within minutes of his arrival on-stage, a large proportion of the audience headed for the bars or the toilets, apparently labouring under the misapprehension that this strange development within the framework of the evening constituted some kind of interval. Kaye then re-appeared briefly in front of an awful lot of empty seats, signalling that the real interval was thankfully upon us.
In my view, any comedian who knows anything about the industry would have turned Mr Kaye down flat, if invited right in the middle of a show, to fill-in. If this performance had been on T.V the result would surely have been career suicide for Peter’s foolhardy comedy guest. The crowds flock to see Peter Kaye and no-one else. In the ultimate game of two halves, Bolton’s comedy superstar gave us an entire half of new material, including a poignant bit starring his recently deceased and beloved Nana.
With thousands of people in front of him still in stitches, Peter then appealed to the hordes not to film the finale, for fear of spoiling things for the massed ranks of audiences of arena shows yet to the come. I certainly will not go into the content here for fear of spoiling the sheer scale of the surprise. Suffice it to say, I think that in all my years I have never seen a bigger or better end to a comedy evening as was performed so brilliantly here.
If you want to know more, you will have to buy a ticket. Long Live Peter Kaye!