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• Record-breaking schedule to gross at least £20m • Comedian takes first 58 shows to 12 biggest arenas Robert Newman and David Baddiel’s pioneering one-off Wembley Arena show in 1993 prompted declarations that comedy was the new rock’n’roll. Eighteen years on, Michael McIntyre is due to play several dozen similar sized gigs, making a strong challenge for the title of the UK scene’s most bankable act. Comedy has never been bigger, with big venues describing it as their fastest growing moneyspinner. Tickets have just gone on sale for McIntyre’s new arena tour – almost 18 months in advance – which could end up being the UK’s biggest and most lucrative. An initial 58 dates have been scheduled at 12 of the UK and Ireland’s biggest venues. If they sell out – and some arenas already report few tickets remaining – McIntyre will perform his winning, defiantly old-fashioned brand of observational humour to about 600,000 people, grossing somewhere north of £20m. It is not as yet officially the biggest ever such tour. Peter Kay is currently resuming a set of dates spread over two years which will see him reach around 750,000 fans, while Lee Evans begins a 66-date stint in August. However, as McIntyre’s initial dates sell out spare nights on his 108-day schedule will inevitably be filled. “It’s certainly one of the biggest UK comedy tours ever announced, and probably the biggest tour announced in one go,” said a spokeswoman for McIntyre, who has also sold 2.5m DVDs. “It is likely there will be a number of extra shows as we go on.” There are two key questions here. The first – how did McIntyre become so popular? – is the slightly more subjective, though his eager, family-friendly style, honed during a decade toiling in the lower echelons of his trade, and TV ubiquity via the likes of his eponymous Comedy Roadshow and Britain’s Got Talent, clearly play a large part. Perhaps more mysterious is tracing the evolution of comedy’s trend away from sweaty clubs to provincial theatres and eventually into aircraft hangar-sized venues. The promoter Mick Perrin organised the UK’s first comedy arena tour, as distinct from Newman and Baddiel’s one off date. He recalls trying to book Eddie Izzard’s 2003 Sexie show: “I’d call up the venues and they’d laugh down the phone – they’d say, ‘You’re not serious.’ No one had tried it before, but Eddie wanted to push the boundaries.” A big factor, he says, has been the new technology of high definition video screens and digital sound: “If you’re going to play an arena you need to be sure that the experience at the back is as good as at the front. It doesn’t come cheap – on Eddie’s tour we had six full trucks and a crew of 45, just for one person.” Another key point, he adds, is that some arena tours are not quite what they seem. “If you use the full venue you might have a crowd of 11,000, but lots of times it might just be a bit sectioned off, maybe 3,500. It sounds good for some comedians to say they’re doing an arena tour, but in fact they’re not playing to many more people than in a large theatre.” What is certain is that it has become just as big a business for venues as well as comics. Phil Mead, head of arenas for the NEC Group, who’s NIA venue in Birmingham is hosting McIntyre for six nights next year, says comedy is the fastest growing part of the business. “Just five years ago comedians accounted for less than 100,000 arena visitors nationwide – now it’s in excess of 1m and shows no sign of fading in popularity.” Glasgow’s SECC saw 15,000 tickets for Kay’s December 2009 stint at the arena sell out within hours, and says McIntyre’s even bigger allocation – five nights in the 9,200-seater main hall – is doing equally well. “It’s certainly a buoyant market,” said Kirsten McAlonan from the venue. “In October alone we’ve got four different comedians. Maybe it’s because it’s a recession and people need a laugh. They’re certainly still willing to spend money on it.” Perrin has a final reason for the move to arenas: today’s super successful brand of comics have the sheer self-belief to firstly believe they can sell enough tickets and then perform in front of such a throng: “I’ve stood on the edge of the stage as they go on and the scale is frightening. But these guys have got egos as big as any rock musician, they can do it. They like the scale – it’s great for them to see that Bon Jovi has just done one date when they’re doing three or four.” Crowd pleasers • Rob Newman and David Baddiel are generally credited with performing the first UK comedy arena date, ending the 1993 live tour of their Newman and Baddiel in Pieces TV show in front of 12,000 people at Wembley Arena. • It took a decade for this to be matched, as Eddie Izzard took his 2003 Sexie tour round a series of arenas. • Lee Evans is credited with a series of comedy scale-of-performance firsts, setting a then world audience record for a solo act in 2005 in front of more than 10,000 people at Manchester’s MEN Arena. His subsequent Big arena tour also became a record-breaker. • With McIntyre and Evans, the third – and arguably biggest – UK comedy behemoth is Peter Kay. His current tour, which kicked off with 20 dates at the MEN Arena and will end with 19 more at the same venue, will net a reported £35m. Michael McIntyre Comedy Peter Walker guardian.co.uk