Saturday night’s show at Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena from one of Britain’s best-loved comedians was a comfortable, undemanding affair, though it did feel somewhat light on fresh, sharp material.
For an evening that could be described as cosy and reassuringly familiar, there was one brief moment of genuine tension. Peter Kay brought up Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s name and followed it with a quip suggesting the former royal might soon be involved in a fatal road accident. The crowd loved it, though the atmosphere was rather fragile at that point.
Overall, the March 21 performance felt as warming and filling as a tin of Heinz tomato soup alongside a grilled cheese sandwich. Not exactly nutritionally balanced or worthy of a prestigious culinary award, but a reassuring classic for good reason.
Rather than presenting a linear progression of new jokes as one might have anticipated from Kay’s previous stand-up specials, Saturday’s show combined crowd work, anecdotes about the entertainment industry, heartfelt memories of his late grandmother, and of course, numerous solid punchlines.
The show opened with Kay spotting some small chocolates that had been tossed onto the stage, which sparked an impromptu sing-along featuring jingles from confectionery advertisements across the decades. While this seemed spontaneous, it apparently occurred at his other dates too. For someone born in the mid-1990s like this reviewer, the segment stretched on a little too long, cycling through promotional ditties that were entirely unfamiliar, though one younger audience member did belt out the Calgon jingle about washing machines lasting longer, which snapped this writer back to attention. Scanning the auditorium made it evident that Kay was deliberately catering to the appropriate age group.
The audience comprised mainly men and women in the 50 to 65 range, though notably there were plenty of family groups – parents with their children and adult offspring. This cross-generational appeal represents a crucial element behind his national treasure reputation.
That reputation brings celebrity connections, and the show included not one but two stories about his friendship with guitar legend Eric Clapton. This also paved the way for one of the evening’s strongest punchlines, as Kay expressed enthusiastic admiration upon spotting Andrew Lloyd Webber in the crowd, before realizing it was actually a rather plain-looking woman.
Other assessments of this tour have shown little mercy, implying accusations of complacency. As Morrissey once crooned, the public often offers praise followed by harsh criticism, following a familiar pattern.
For many years, Kay was the golden child who could seemingly do no wrong, from the meteoric success of his 2003 Live at the Bolton Albert Halls to his freewheeling appearances alongside Jonathan Ross on television. Yet nothing incenses the British public quite like a famous person managing to remain at the summit. We eagerly anticipate the fall.
Well, this weekend’s Nottingham appearance was not a dramatic decline. It was admittedly short on biting new material, and one cannot deny he was nestled quite cozily within nostalgia, yet it remained an evening overflowing with laughter from a performer who has cultivated his approachable, beloved persona, with considerable triumph, for decades.
He remains unquestionably among the finest in his field, and while this particular show did not represent the pinnacle of his career, it was still sufficiently hilarious to make the ticket price worthwhile.