I went to see if the Whitehall family really is as weird as Jack Whitehall says it is.... it really is

Think your family is weird? Well, Jack Whitehall and his parents are out to show they can out-weird anyone.

The Whitehall’s have created a show which is part-stand-up comedy and part-family therapy, while also being an educational tool for how Jack Whitehall perfected his act and got some of his humour and, possibly, some of his material.

It may have been cold, windy and rainy outside, but inside the Halls Wolverhampton on Saturday evening, the atmosphere was hot and tingling with anticipation ahead of the first night of a short tour of the UK with his father Michael before touring Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Dubai in January.

Jack Whitehall had played the Civic in the past, but had always been a solo performer there, whereas this show saw Jack working with his 84-year-old father Michael and his 63-year-old mother Hilary in a show which had already enjoyed a successful debut in New York at Carnegie Hall.

In front of a sold-out crowd, it was the younger Whitehall who hit the stage first, treating those in attendance to an hysterical stand-up set which hit a number of subjects, some close to home and others very near the knuckle.

From feeling let down by not being propositioned by Kevin Spacey (the contents of which should stay in the room) to joking about his family, Jack hit the right marks throughout.

The main part of his set in the first part saw him talk about recently becoming a father and how it had changed him, from being there to play catch at the birth to debating whether his child should be home-schooled and how a date night for him and his girlfriend was getting eight hours of sleep at night.

It was a very funny insight into how someone who never expected to become a father was adjusting to it, with his rant at the end about how the relationship and what happens in the bedroom would change was very funny.

Of course, the night was not just about Jack and his parents made their first appearances of the night, with Michael lip-syncing to a song using a banana to Hilary coming out dressed as Australian breakdancer RayGun and doing his own version of dancing (trust me, it’s weird enough to write this when you think that I watched it live).

After a short break, we welcomed back the Whitehall's to the leather seats and tables in the middle of the stage, with Jack taking the single seat and Hilary and Michael the larger seat.

The format of the evening saw the three bouncing off each other which, while Michael started off a bit slowly, saw him warm up very quickly and provide quips which left his son and wife and those in attendance laughing heartily.

The format of the evening saw Jack asking questions and his dad telling stories, such as a schoolgirl in Putney asking him for a selfie, then asking him if he would tell her day to “**** off”, a popular catchphrase of his, as well as a story of how he wouldn’t do a Covid Vaccination video as there was no fee.

While Jack’s set at the beginning had been a straight set, his contribution to this saw him, at times, mocking or joking with his parents, showing a relationship which was comfortable with making each other laugh and also squirm.

This came through in some of the videos shown by Hilary, from Michael turning out Strictly Come Dancing because he wanted to “wing it” on stage, then showing him a video of him and Jack dancing over the years, to videos of Jack not being great at sport, as well as being naked on screen, something which left several people around me almost crying with laughter and Jack almost mortified.

It was a wonderful and funny show, with all three adding their parts to make it work, with Michael’s dry wit coming through at times, particularly in the quiz they did at the end as, when asked about the winner of Love Island, he brought the house down with “All those who didn’t have to watch it”.

As it started bizarrely, so it did end the same, with Hilary getting a lapdance from a dancer from Magic Mike, then Michael running back out dressed as Barry Manilow (Yes, again, it seems as strange to write as it was to watch).

Jack Whitehall is a funny man and, judging by the amount of laughter I heard and, indeed, emitted myself, you can see where he gets his humour from, with Hilary and Michael both hysterical in their own ways.

It's a show with a lot going for it and is worth a see before they take it abroad.