Entertainment For Lively Minds
My New Favourite Comedian
Posted by Mr Drayton on 6 December 2009 - 9:08pm.
According to the Sunday Mirror, Michael McIntyre blew out a corporate gig and lost himself a £28,000 fee in the process. It was a debt collectors xmas jolly. I doff my cap to him.
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Not altogether professional though, is it?
I'm sure they had a whip round and felt better!
I find it a little hard...
... to believe he only knew it was a debt collectors gig half an hour before he was due on stage.
Not altogether professional though, is it?
Indeed it isn't. It's nice for Mickey Mac that he's able to breathe the air all the way up there on that moral high ground...
Must be great to
turn down above the average annual salary in one night and mess up loads of people's Christmas do on a whim (you didn't mention any mitigating circumstances ill health etc). Not sure who the guests are makes much difference. One of my friends is what you call a "debt collector" his job is mainly getting large well off companies to pay smaller companies and in some case free lancers what they are owed. He earns a shilling and good luck to him.
If he does a gig and they don't pay him...
Who would his people turn to for help? Or maybe he'd just give a chirpy "c'est la vie" and put it down to experience?
He claims the moral high ground
Is he a comedian with a known high ethical content ?
From what little I know of him, he seems to be a regular Family Entertainer.
If he is doing corporate gigs that pay 28K for an evening spot, the companies who can pay that are generally more Rio Tinto Zinc than Greenpeace.
This looks like grandstanding : I could be wrong, and I won't mind at all if I am and he starts using his influence for good causes.
But someone in his organisation will be in a very difficult position over this - how can he not know until hours before showtime who he is entertaining and adding his cachet to ?
What gigs is he going to turn down next ?
From the Corporate Section of his agent's website
Rest of page is http://www.offthekerb.co.uk/corporate/
This doesn't really add up - if they are paying that price, they expect some tailoring of the material to their specific event. (Hence "incredibly well-informed as a result of his own independent research" and "respectful of the event"). Why pull out so late ?
His people have given the reason as
"He's been in debt before" which is why he didn't do the gig on principle. I suspect he's not been in debt since he could get £28k for stand up at a Christmas party. Is it possible to feel both that the debt collectors got a little of what was coming to them and Michael McIntyre has a preposterous set of morals?
“Don’t you know who I am?”
Michael McyIntyre, Heat magazine, 5/12/2009:
“The other day I forgot to pay this bill and I got quite a nasty fine. So I phoned up customer services and they said (puts on nasal voice) “hello, are you calling to make a payment?” And I thought, they’re not really cutting me much slack here, so I hung up and called back and said, “Hello, it’s Michael McIntyre!” And they said, “Can I take your credit card details?” So I hung up again. Eleven times it took me before I got someone who knew who I was - this bloke went (puts on Welsh accent) “I can’t believe it’s you. Don’t worry. I’m sure we can sort it out for you!” (Cackles wildly)
Honestly, those “debt collectors” at call centres. Sometimes celebrities have to phone up eleven times before they’re recognised and given preferential treatment. Disgraceful.
So
no one else likes him then?
to be honest
I liked him when he first appeared but god has he been over exposed. I am surprised he hasn't "fallen" down some theatres stairs having spent this summer making the entire comedy world his "bitch" with his unprecedented self titled comedy vehicle.
I do
I've noticed a lot of comedians attacking him (or at least writing him off) recently, typically for being 'mainstream'; often they slag off observational comedy in the same breath.
I'm always a little disappointed by this because some of those who dislike him are people that I really admire (e.g. Stewart Lee). And I really like the fact that McIntyre has managed to make genuinely funny shows that you could watch with your gran. I wouldn't do his O2 shows - no comedian can come off well in that type of venue - but I'd happily go and see him elsewhere.
As for sacking off the debt-collectors - there must be more to the story than simply bailing half an hour earlier? Surely?
Stewart Lee gets on my tits now.
By talking. Talking.
Really, really slowly.
With lots of big pauses to let his terribly,
terribly important and oh-so-faintly amusing words
sink in.
Sometimes repeating himself
Several times
Sometimes repeating himself
Several times
Sometimes repeating himself
Several times.
Because this is Big, Important Comedy
Not little comedy.
And certainly not just a way
Of padding fifteen minutes' worth of material
Out to an hour and a half.
He's very good at what he does
and what he does was quite novel and interesting a couple of years ago. I think he managed to confound expectations of what you thought he was going to be like (posh voice, floppy hair) with fast paced, well thought out observational stuff. Now he meets expectations which is a little boring.
And I still don't get why he blew out a gig because he found out they worked on the debt collecting side of the finance industry. When did that become a noble thing to do? I bet his people would chase if one of his fees hadn't been paid.