DVD of the week: Michael McIntyre - 'Hello Wembley'

Michael McIntyre - comic genius or overhyped dullard? Check out Alex and Ben's contrasting opinions below.

• Alexander Longos

I could sum up this review in four words: I love this man. However, for your benefit, I will elaborate (yes, you are that lucky). McIntyre is an extremely funny and talented comedian, who seems to transcend simple joke telling. He reminds me at times of Lee Evans (the king of comedy, as far as I am concerned), in as much as McIntyre’s comedy is a physical comedy, consisting of mainly prancing around the stage.

The entirety of his routine covers a myriad of topics: from hairdressers to shopping; dancing to sign language; beauty products to the Wii. He has an acute ability for finding humour in the most banal aspects of everyday life: a favourite of mine being his exuberant portrayal of a conversation between all the spices in a kitchen cupboard. It literally had me in tears, despite the fact I had previously seen said sketch on his BBC series, Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow, which had aired prior to the DVD release late last year. This aspect would be my only slight vice with his set, as there were times when the humour was detracted from because I found myself comparing the performance of an anecdote to the last time I heard it. Personally, I feel a DVD release should contain all-new material, and not use old work. Nevertheless, in fairness to the man, not everyone is as avid a fan as me, and so will not have watched the entire series on iPlayer, instead of studying!

Overall, I found this DVD to be hilarious and side-splitting; which is why I am awarding it an awesome 4.5 stars out of 5. But, was it good enough to turn a man so against him he once compared watching his stand-up to having an incurable disease?! Let’s see.

• Ben McEldowney

I must admit that it was with a pessimistic attitude that I resigned to sit down and watch Hello Wembley. McIntyre has taken the UK by storm in the last couple of years and his comedy has been hard to escape, perhaps due to repeated exposure or his frankly dull cameos on shows such as Mock the Week, overshadowed by other more spontaneous, quick-witted comedians. I had entirely failed to ‘get’ the hype surrounding him. Moreover, I had developed an irrational but profound hatred for his face. But I digress.

My previously held qualms were not addressed by the show’s slapstick introduction involving McIntyre and some of his most irksome expressions apparently running to Wembley at the speed of light, nor his arrival on stage, decorated only with his name in colossal lettering.

However, once the comedy began, I was slowly but surely won over by his routine. Previously I had been put off by the apparently mundane nature of his material, but it soon becomes clear his quirky observations on topics such as men’s worrying towel-drying habits in the gym are what hold the act together. However, I think his best jokes involved his creation of more abstract situations, but these were sadly infrequent compared to filler gags about Nintendo Wiis or his ‘looking like a fat Chinese man’.

I still don’t think that McIntyre could ever be ranked as a comic genius, but it is easy to see why he has become the nation’s favourite comedian: he says what the public is thinking, and his humour is simple yet well-crafted and accessible. For me he still cannot compare to a real expansive genius like Eddie Izzard who says things the public would never think of, but my enjoyment is proof that Hello Wembley will give even the most cynical comedy fan more than enough laughs to justify its purchase.

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