Celia Walden meets the comic who looks more like a private school sixth former.
“Give me a pen,” instructs Michael McIntyre, holding out a palm. “I need to write that down – it’s funny. Very funny.”
The 34-year-old comedian has garnered a vast fan base and made an estimated £10 million by finding a lot of fairly mundane things very funny. Where other comedians – the same comedians who criticise the Comedy Roadshow host for being “safe” and “mainstream” – seek out the joke, manufacture the humour or twist real life into something wacky or crude enough to prompt amusement, McIntyre just points at every day things and laughs.In the fifteen minutes we have sat at our table in the Dean Street Townhouse in Soho, the comedian has twice been reduced to tears of laughter. First there was my Christian name, which in the join-the-dots mind of a humorist was quickly linked to the Simon and Garfunkel song – and from there to the absurdity of the song’s lyrics. “So this guy is lying in bed with Cecelia, and suddenly he decides to get out of bed and wash his face? What’s that about? No wonder someone’s 'taken his place’ by the time he gets back.” Then there’s the suit jacket he decided to wear to our interview. “I’ve been told I look like a banker, but I think it’s my face – do you?” There’s nothing banker like about his smart, larky face – although the ostentatious Rolex Daytona on his wrist might give people the wrong idea. Bling aside, he looks more like a private school sixth former on day release than the King of British Comedy.
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