I found Sunday evening's Iain Stirling comedy gig at The Wyvern to be an extremely confronting night of comedy as the comedian's struggles with his own weight and body image, particularly when stood next to his partner Laura Whitmore formed the basis of his show. 

It was my 31st birthday, the clothes that had been bought for me were a large instead of a medium and I have, as my mother recently said 'porked out a bit' so I found Stirling's take on unwanted weight-gain in his thirties to be disarmingly relatable. 

I found myself nodding along to his admission that parts of his body had remained thin, but his belly hadn't, making it hard for you to find any item of clothing that fits your 'weirdly shaped body' that is 'thin in 2D or from the front but not from the side.' 

I knew he had nailed this particular topic of observational comedy because my wife, who was watching with me, kept giving me that knowing look that says "He's talking about you, you're like that."

It was interesting that Stirling, who has become famous off of the strength of his wit and Scottish accent as heard on hit-show Love Island, a show typically enjoyed by the fairer sex and their initially reluctant partners, chose to focus his show on male struggles. 

Especially as, by his own admission, he was aware that a lot of the men in the audience were only there because their wives or partners wanted to see the funny famous man from the television programme. 

This made his self-deprecating material that little bit more effective as he talked about punching above his weight with his glamourous showbiz wife, losing control of his body, and doing awkward things to try and keep her interested in him, like 'hot yoga'.

But, it wasn't just the ramblings of a man who 'used to do sports' and now can't pretend to do curling, it was also a tightly put together comedy show with several callbacks, including one at the end that brilliantly brought the entire show full-circle.

The show, which was supposed to happen in 2019, was sold-out, but there was a smattering of empty seats which Iain laughed away as couples that hadn't made it through lockdown. 

The best thing about it, however, was not the masterful audience interaction, as good as that was, it was the sincere message he used to underpin everything - which was that in an age where everything online is perfect, people should be freer to f*** up and make mistakes.