HE'S BACK
Peter Kay jokes ‘I’m going away for four more years’ after standing ovation from cheering crowds at long-awaited return
PETER Kay joked he plans on going away for another four years - after a standing ovation at his comeback gig.
The comedian said returning to the stage is like "getting in a hot bath" as cheers rang out at a charity performance.
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Bolton-born Kay appeared to rapturous applause at Manchester's O2 Apollo for the first of two live Q&A's on Saturday.
And he told the crowd: "I've never in my life had a standing ovation when I came on" - before joking: "I'm going to go away for four more years."
The comic returned to the stage for the Doing It For Laura events, held to raise money for 20-year-old brain cancer sufferer Laura Nuttall.
Laura - who suffers with an aggressive tumour called a glioblastoma multiforme - was in the audience to watch Kay's performance.
She was initially given between 12 and 18 months to live when she was diagnosed at the age of just 18.
CROWD'S STANDING OVATION
However, she has since received immunotherapy treatment in Germany thanks to fundraising.
Her sister Gracie introduced Kay - and told the audience the family are "eternally grateful" to all those who have helped out for "potentially saving my sister's life".
Beginning the matinee, Kay admitted to some nerves.
"I was a bit nervous in the morning when I got here," he said.
"I was looking at all this and thinking, 'Oh my God', but it's really nice to be doing this.
"It's like getting in a hot bath."
Hundreds of fans queued in the rain ahead of the comedian's first gig in years.
Those who attended were asked to provide proof that they've been double-jabbed or had a negative Covid test.
During his performance, Kay answered questions from audience members which had been submitted before the show.
Asked if TV series Max And Paddy would return, he said: "I loved making Max And Paddy, it was one of the best times we ever had filming and we had such a good laugh.
'IT'S REALLY NICE - LIKE A HOT BATH'
"We actually wrote two Christmas specials and then we never made them, so you never know."
And he said he's "too embarrassed" to buy garlic bread at the supermarket - after the snack became the punchline to one of his best-loved jokes.
He also told anecdotes about holidays at Eric Clapton’s home in France and indoor sky-diving. Throughout the first two-hour session, he mocked the woke brigade — telling fans he was “very fluid”.
His mixture of gags included: “A woman goes to the doctor’s and says ‘I keep getting powerful orgasms every time I sneeze’. The doctor says, ‘Well, what are you taking for it?’ She says, ‘Pepper’.”
And “Where does Saddam Hussein keep his CDs? In Iraq.
Kay has been largely out of the spotlight since a surprise appearance at a charity screening of his series Car Share in 2018.
However, he made a brief return in January 2021 when he appeared on BBC Radio 2 to chat to Cat Deeley about his love of music, mix tapes and the musical Mamma Mia.
He cancelled his last tour in December 2017, citing "unforeseen family circumstances".
But he made his return to support Laura after meeting her father, a storyboard artist, during the filming of Max and Paddy.
The family received an unexpected call from the star in January 2019 after he saw Laura's cancer battle on the BBC.
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Miss Nuttall said in July: "He rang my mum a month ago. He said he'd ring Manchester Apollo and see what slots they had free.
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"Doing a concert for me, someone he loosely knows, part of me feels like I don't deserve it.
"There are other people with worse cancers, who don't have enough food to get by."
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Peter Kay arrives for long-awaited comeback as fans cheer after charity gig sells out in seconds
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