With no support act, Dara took centre stage and gave what only can be described as an evening filled with a barrel of laughs and living up to expectations. He opened his Crowd Tickler show by picking on the front row audience. O’Briain zeroed in on a man from Selby who claimed to be an IT Consultant. In response, the York audience began booing the gentlemen, which lead O’Briain onto his little natter about the Neon Selby Church.

After his unscripted discussion, he moved onto his planned material, which was when things got a whole lot funnier. Whether sharing a swimming pool line with another person or being constantly mistaken for Al Murray, O’Briain knows how to command the stage and shows us what he does best: making people laugh.

One of the show’s highlights was the demise of a channel tunnelling machine called “chuggy”, which apparently causes public outrage after every show via Twitter… there was definitely a temptation to tweet him that evening to urge him to reconsider Chuggy’s fate.

Often with stand-up comedy the jokes fall short and aren’t as funny as hoped. Luckily this wasn’t the case with Dara. He had the audience crying with laughter and wrapped around his little finger, as he entranced them with his show.

So let’s raise a glass to our favourite pub landlord Al… Dara O’Briain!