Life and Laughing_ My Story - Michael McIntyre [120]
An advert for my DVD at Piccadilly Circus. It looks very cool but was actually revolving with several other adverts. I went to see it with Kitty and we had to drive around the block twelve times before we caught it!
It’s just mind-blowing. One minute I was traipsing around comedy clubs telling my jokes, and the next minute I’m playing arenas where they’re selling merchandise with my jokes written on them. Some of the jokes that couldn’t get me to headline Jongleurs were now on T-shirts, key rings and mouse mats.
If there was one moment when I was able to stop and appreciate what was happening to me, it was on my last night at the O2 in London. The O2 is the biggest venue I’ve played: it’s the biggest venue in Europe and holds 16,000 people. I played there for four nights. Before my tour started, I saw Madonna there, the first night I did was replacing Michael Jackson, the night before my final night Beyoncé was there. It simply doesn’t get any bigger than this.
I arrived for my final O2 performance at about 4 p.m. feeling at home, having already had three gigs there. I knew it was the last time I would be there for a long while, maybe ever, so I was determined to enjoy it. The gig is surprisingly easy. Despite there being so many people, the spotlights were so bright I couldn’t see a single soul from the enormous stage. I could just hear an eruption of laughter. This night was extra special because my mum had come over from France to see the show and my sister Lucy had come over from New York, where she now lives and works.
All through the tour I was looking forward to my mum seeing the astonishing size of these venues. You really have to see it to believe it. She sat in her seat and watched the thousands and thousands of my fans taking their seats, clutching bags of merchandise with my face on them. She was overwhelmed and began to cry as she thought of her visit to the Tarot card reader on Kensington Church Street when she was pregnant with me over thirty years earlier.
‘It came true. It all came true,’ she thought to herself, smiling through her tears.
I belted out my show with all the passion and exuberance I could muster and savoured every second. I once fantasized about storming the Comedy Store and calling for Kitty at the end like Rocky calling for Adrian. We weren’t together then. If I’m brutally honest, I thought that dream was a long shot. I had achieved nothing in comedy and nothing with Kitty and doubted whether I could get close to either. Now the reality of my life was something I wouldn’t have dared to dream of. Sixteen thousand people standing and cheering my name, and Kitty among them, rushing backstage and into my arms. My wife, the love of my life and mother of my children, Lucas and our new baby, Oscar.
With my gorgeous wife at the GQ Men of the Year Awards.
So many people came to the O2 that night, and I knew then how special it was. Chilling out after the show in my dressing room with Kitty, Lucy, Danny, my mum, Steve and my brothers, all together, proud of me.
Basking in the spotlight during the recording of my second DVD, Hello Wembley.
‘Where’s Addison?’ I asked Danny.
Addison has been integral to everything good that has happened in my career. He is an incredible man and agent. From the moment he saw me for the first time in Edinburgh and subsequently squeezed me on