First a disclaimer: I’m not a fan of comedy gigs in arenas. I understand the rationale for doing them once an act achieves critical mass in terms of audience appeal, but no matter how good the performer, there’s always a danger that something gets lost on a big stage with big screens, not least a connection to the audience, as bigger shows necessitate bigger performances in search of bigger laughs.

At 6ft 8in tall with the belly of Barbapapa (“Google it” as he advised the audience), Greg Davies obviously has ‘bigger’ on his side - the show’s title and unflattering posters highlight the fact - but he’s also a huge personality and wonderfully engaging raconteur, regularly laughing along (or more often corpsing) as he rattles off his colourful stories. This time out they largely focus on his ongoing attempts to get over himself, or more specifically get to grips with who he really is, which he acknowledges is rather less than the ‘legend’ title regularly shouted at him by Joe Public.

Indeed, Full Fat Legend is an almost non-stop rebuttal of that status, as Davies reels off a stream of tales that not only show him for what he really is (“a fat comedian”) but demonstrate that no-one can be summed up by a label and he really still sees himself as a 12-year-old despite being stuck in a 57-year-old’s ailing body. The riotous stories - often shameful, always puerile and almost uniformly indiscrete - are all delivered with his customary gusto, and ranged from innocent childhood concerns - or a complete lack of them - growing up in rural Shropshire through his brief period as a teacher to health issues and celebrity encounters now he’s famous.

None showed the narrator in a particularly good light, but self-deprecation and a lack of self-censorship has always been part of the comic’s storytelling schtick, and the stream of laugh-out-loud anecdotes ensured he had the audience in the palm of his hand throughout - though preferably not the same manus called into action after a particularly grim incident involving a ‘baggy’ part of his anatomy.

That vivid yarn was one of many that were simultaneously rude, grisly, puerile and most importantly hilarious, on a night when Davies somehow made a performance to 12,500 people - his biggest-ever gig - feel like having a laugh with a few mates. An achievement all the more impressive given he’d not toured in seven years and this reviewer’s aversion to big gigs, and fuel to the argument that maybe he is a legend after all. Just like any of the brave souls who dared to purchase tee-shirts bearing the words ‘Full Fat Legend’ from the merch stand. On your own heads be it…

4 stars

Reviewed by Steve Adams at BP Pulse Live on Wednesday 18 June.