Shambles is full of wonky buildings selling fudge, and to avoid paying the Minster's entrance fee just stick your head through the door and look up.

Perhaps not the typical way to get a York audience on your side, but it was still much-appreciated by the capacity crowd at Dara O'Briain's stand-up show at the Grand Opera House.

The 6ft 4in Irish comedian is best known for the satirical TV news quiz Mock the Week.

But his act was rather more whimsical, with asides about feral priests in Ireland scent-marking their territories - a joke which he claims he can't tell in his home country - and a query about if there is good and bad bacteria, what happens when your pour Dettol into a Yakult yoghurt?

Rants about homeopathy ("it's just water!") and psychics ("It's a con. What are they going to do? Sue me?") followed, but it was his interaction with the audience that proved to be the highlight of the show - and which also means each of O'Briain's gig is always going to contain new material.

Questioning an accountant (good with numbers but can't remember his girlfriend's birthday), an author of training material (but not training manuals) all led to five-minute, ad-libbed rambles, which had the crowd rolling in the aisles while a fear of Phil Collins' face appearing at a skylight proved to be a surreal moment.

But in O'Briain's own words: "I guess you had to be there".