Sitting in TGI Friday’s last night, munching my way through a 10oz sirloin, I looked out of the window and watched as a large man, clad in a long black coat and wearing a black fedora, strode through the crowds, his head slightly bowed to hide his face and his hands thrust deep into his pockets to keep them from the chill air.  Incognito, he passed through the crowd without recognition from anyone.

Apart from me.

“Dara O’Briain just walked past”, I said nonchalantly to Mrs. Masher, who was busy tucking into the world’s largest plate of spare ribs.

“That’s handy”, she said.

It was indeed handy, as we had tickets to see him in his ‘So… Where Were We?’  tour: the Milton Keynes leg starting in just over thirty minutes.

We finished our food, hurried over to the theatre, paid an extortionate amount of money for two drinks and then seated ourselves in  our rather excellent seats up in the circle (I heartily recommend seats AA 9 and 10 ).

For the next two and a half hours (with an interval) Dara entertained us with stories of his knee operation; mistaken identities; his attempts to get a free fancy toilet ; home schooling during Covid lockdown and so much more.  His interactions with the  audience were superb – gifted as he was, with a front row that consisted of Rolls Royce aircraft engineers, Formula 1 engineers, Data Analysts, a bloke who worked with a supercomputer and a family business devoted to Karcher jet washers.

Much of the second half was taken up with his tale of how he found out he’d been adopted and the lengths he had to go to to find his birth mother: a strange subject for stand up, but, as you’d imagine from a raconteur such as he, it was delivered with facts, emotion and a huge dollop of humour.

It was an excellent show.

Catch it if you can.