Alan Davies – Little Victories (Tour – Salford)

It is a rare comedian who can banter with an audience the size of the Lowry’s Lyric theatre and keep complete control, yet Alan Davies makes it look easy.
He tops and tails his two-and-a-half hour set with the kind of improvised chat you’d find at an intimate comedy club.

And, although it’s a long time since he gigged on that scene, he’s clearly not lost any of his charm. He holds the stage with an assured confidence and interacts with people sitting in the circle, as if they might be enjoying a laugh at the bar.

Davies comes across as warm, friendly, and self-depreciatingly funny. He jokes that people will say, ‘he can’t be that good, or he’d be playing the Arena.’ In reality, Davies was winning comedy awards before some of his audience were born. But while TV drama, Jonathan Creek and panel show, QI have made him a household name, most of his fans are probably no longer familiar with his stand-up routine.

This is not surprising – before his previous tour a couple of years ago, Davies had been out of the game for 12 years. Now treading the boards again, those familiar with his likeable TV persona will not be disappointed.

In many ways, Little Victories covers well-worn comedy territory, such as parent-child relationships and nostalgia, but it is Davies’ personal twists that make his story­telling so appealing. His gentle honesty is refreshing, and there are some genuine side-splitting moments as when the new dad paints a picture of himself being squeezed through a foam mangle in a child’s soft play area.

There are some touching moments too, especially when he talks about his cantankerous old dad, who now has Alzheimer’s, and who, as a young man, raised the family as a single parent after Alan’s mum died when he was just 6.

It could so easily be heart-breaking, but there is no room for sentimentality in these autobiographical ramblings. Instead, we hear about how he used stealth to get his dad to eat blackcurrant jam, one of the little victories from which the title of the show emerges.

Like a true comedian, Davies sees the humour in everything. People have paid to be entertained and Davies never forgets this.