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The challenge of being a hugely popular modern stand-up is pleasing all your multi-generational fans all the time. The host of Mock The Week and imminent anchor of The Apprentice: You're Fired cracked this conundrum last night by being such an inclusive consummate communicator that the entire audience was hanging on every sentence. And every sentence ended in a laugh.
The burly Dubliner delivered routines about the agony of childbirth and had the teenagers in the crowd in stitches.
Moments later, he rattled through riffs and mimes inspired by the repetitiveness of computer games and had those middle-aged fans who had not played Super Mario since John Major was prime minister falling off their seats.
If this lightning-speed set did not quite reach the intellectually probing heights of O’Briain’s last visit, it was still stuffed with dazzling observations, vivid vignettes and glorious gags. On appeasing toddlers he confirmed what all hungover dads know, that the pet shop is a "free zoo", while having finally given up trying to follow pop trends he compared the relief to "throwing off a heavy coat". As ever, he worked the stalls like a puppet master, striking comedy gold when asking the audience which unlikely celebrities had appeared in their dreams. Although on this occasion no-one matched the fan who dreamed about flying in a plane with Mr Sheen. Still, a truly polished performance.
Until September 25. Information: 0844 277 4321, ticketmaster.co.uk
Dara O Briain
HMV Apollo
Queen Caroline Street, W6 9QH
