Spexy beast is welcome return

THERE are few things better than seeing an old, hilarious friend again after some time.

“It’s been four years” said camp comedian Alan Carr as he warned his audience to expect nice bits and rubbish parts from his return to touring. “It’s a bit like Cher Lloyd on X Factor”

I wasn’t watching out for them – but the rubbish bits were nowhere to be seen.

From the moment Carr burst on stage, waving a jacket theatrically around his head then failing to throw it off the stage, he owned it.

Self-deprecation is the name of the game and Carr is always first in line to mock himself, starting with Spexy Beast as the name of the tour and continuing with the comparison of his fringe to a lady’s Brazilian.

Talking to “Sheffield” like a mate down the pub, he covered topics which ordinarily might seem mundane for a funnyman filling stadiums the size of Sheffield’s Motorpoint Arena for two nights.

Bitchy burglars slamming his doilies while he listened upstairs, getting caught up as a lycra-clad cyclist in the student riots, and terrible jobs like putting raisins in cereal - “not individually” – all came under the spotlight.

It was an incredibly interactive performance and some of the funnier moments were when he ab libbed with the audience.

Oh, and when he explained why he and good friend Gok Wan couldn’t have children. Just think of the surname.

They say the measure of having good friends is not feeling like you’ve ever been apart or have nothing to talk about.

Carr’s return is a welcome one but really it didn’t feel like he went away.