Greg Davies, comedy review: The big star remains an overgrown child at heart

Greg Davies really is a big star. And not only because he is 6ft 8in.

His You Magnificent Beast tour includes four nights at the Apollo, his C4 sitcom Man Down is wowing audiences and his game show Taskmaster has just finished on Dave.

As he warned his audience, if you bought tickets after enjoying the gross-out Man Down you are in for some fun. If you like the more family-friendly Taskmaster you may be in for a shock. “I’m a dirty boy,” he smirked.

Davies quickly explained he worried about sourcing material when his eccentric mother asked him to stop talking about her on stage. But he couldn’t resist it, repeating her claim that she saw Tracey Emin on Embarrassing Bodies. Mrs Davies is apparently convinced she went on “to get her teeth done on the cheap”.

There are plenty of mum-free laughs too. The show’s theme is how we perceive ourselves and others perceive us. But no amount of inspirational onscreen quotes from Nelson Mandela and Picasso can conceal the fact Davies is essentially an overgrown child.

Numerous stories see him reconnecting with his inner adolescent, recalling his former career as a teacher who flicked Blu Tack at his pupils, his juvenile attempts at pubic topiary or his questionable teenage relationship with a homemade teddy bear.

Yet just as you think Davies takes nothing seriously he pulls the rug with a tribute to his late father. Naturally there is a comic pay-off. In fact there is a pile-up of pay-offs. The big star knows how to end on a big laugh.