Alan Davies, Edinburgh International Conference Centre - review

Launching his first UK tour in a decade, the QI star makes it feel as if he has never been away
5 December 2012

Alan Davies is launching his first UK tour in a decade and it does not feel as if he has been away. As he strolls onstage sporting checked shirt and dark tousled hair and banters nostalgically about the Eighties, it suddenly strikes me: Micky Flanagan has been filling the Davies-shaped hole in recent years.

The two comedians are not identical but there is a noticeable overlap in the way they both yearn for a simpler age of phones in the hall and women with hairier bodies. Davies, however, goes deeper. He also discusses his mother’s death from cancer when he was six and its effect. He feared loss and began to hoard things, steal and soil his pants, which he buried in the garden.

Most of this strong set is lighter than this moving, mucky confession. The QI star is bemused by Facebook and wistful for a time when porn meant mail-order catalogues. The only weakness was his right arm, which ached from holding the microphone. Davies already has his stand-up muscles working again. By the time his tour reaches London, his triceps should be toned too.

Alan Davies plays Hammersmith Apollo on February 16 and 17.

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