had barely said hello to his adoring, roaring crowd before he began to sob. It was the first time he’d been on stage as a stand-up comedian in 12 years and the immediate standing ovation and the gravity of his return hit him like a ton of bricks. “Aw you’ll have me in bits.
It didn’t take long for Kay to get back in his stride, and for the most part, it felt like little time had passed since his last tour in 2010. Dressed in his classic plain suit, his usual short-sleeved purple shirt swapped for a bright blue one, the first half of the show could have been performed at any point in the last few decades.
But by the time the lights came up for an interval, I was enthused, not enthralled. This was the Peter Kay I’d watched on my TV as a child. I could watch this sort of comedy from the comfort of my own home — 2004’sis one of the few DVDs I still own. The world we live in, let alone comedy, had changed irrevocably since Kay last took to the stage.
Peter Kay isn’t just one of Bolton’s best comedians, he’s one of the UK’s most beloved, his appeal rooted in his normalcy and willingness to see the smallest details of everyday life — rain, knobhead uncles, supermarket own brand cola — as potential for a joke. To see him not only on-stage telling jokes, but also having fun doing so , was something many may not have believed would happen a mere four years ago, when he was rumoured to be seriously ill and seemed somewhat of a shut-in.