Star rating: *****

McIntyre is the ultimate 21st-century stand-up, his expertly paced delivery of mainstream anecdotes with a dark comedic undertow winning audiences' hearts and minds.

"Oh, you look like Hugh Grant, except all Chinesey" is, he explains, his default self-image. Indeed, his hair is so lustrous it contemplated a solo career earlier this year.

The barnet plays a major role in his razor-sharp observations on barber-shop etiquette, well supported by elasticated jowls that add no end of upper-class character to various other scenarios.

His brilliance is in the detail: why do all children believe xylophones are commonplace objects after learning their alphabet, and how come you never discover any nooks in the crannies? Why is sneezing the only bodily function with spiritual significance (unless snot is involved), and skipping a practical but socially unacceptable method of getting from A to B? McIntyre has the answers, and they are extremely funny.

He has already played the Royal Variety Show, but he would be equally at home in a subversive basement comedy club telling tales of being a weird posh guy trying to be cool with drug dealers in Leith.

When Michael McIntyre stands up, the rest might as well sit down.