Review: Mike Harding, Grand Opera House (From York Press)

Review: Mike Harding, Grand Opera House

10:57am Monday 28th November 2011 in Comedy By Mike Laycock, Chief reporter

IS it really 15 years since Mike Harding last went on tour and made people laugh like this?

Well, he may have been busy rambling, fishing, writing and broadcasting during that time, but the comic’s performance in front of a sell-out audience at the Grand Opera House reminded fans just what they’ve been missing.

The final gig of his “Me, A Guitar And Some Daft Stuff” tour was full of the wit and observational humour – the anecdotes about the hilarious things ordinary people say and do – which made him a star in the first place.

There’s the school nativity play that descends into predictable but wonderful farce, his upbringing near the “dark satanic creamcracker factory” in Crumpsall, Manchester, and the intimate medical examination he undergoes when he reaches 60 – “There wasn’t even any foreplay!”

He paints vivid portraits of larger-than-life characters in his life, such as the Irish Catholic grandmother who helped bring him up.

“If you haven't got an Irish Catholic grandmother, adopt one!” he says.

And while Mike’s fiery red hair may have greyed, his fiery political passion still burns strongly, as he shows when he suddenly launches into a rant against the Big Society, bankers, hedge funders, Andrew Lansley and Eric Pickles.

And then there’s his songs, mostly amusing and singalong, until the laughter suddenly stops as he sings the haunting Bomber’s Moon, inspired by the death of his father in a Second World War bombing mission just weeks before he was born.