Evans announces record-breaking tour

Lee Evans has announced a record-breaking tour, including London’s 15,000-seater O2 Arena.

Evans will be the first comic to appear at the venue, formerly known as the Millennium Dome, and is set to smash his own record for the biggest comedy audience, set at the Manchester Evening News Arena with his XL tour in November 2005.

Evans holds the official Guinness World Record, 10,108, even though Eddie Izzard has staked a rival claim to selling 13,530 tickets for his Sexie show at the same venue – a total that was not verified by independent adjudicators.

Announcing his tour today, Evans said: ‘It's a bit of a big old gig this one so I'm slightly worried about it. I'll walk on stage, see what happens. We do a bit of comedy and people turn up. I thought it'd be a nice place to do.’

‘It's something I've always wanted to do, be in the Guinness Book of Records. I thought I was going to do it for eating jam pies or something, or how many spoons you can get in your ear.’

A total of 300,000 tickets will go on sale for the Big tour, making it the biggest tour he’s ever done.

It starts in Nottingham on September 6, 2008 and also takes in Cardiff, Sheffield, Bournemouth, Birmingham, Glasgow, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Brighton and Manchester, with two further gigs in London at the Wembley Arena. Click here for full dates.

Tickets go on sale from 10am on Friday.

He said: ‘I’m really keen to get back out on tour again and go all around the country. You get such a buzz from the live audience, the reactions are just so immediate and totally spur you on - there’s nothing else quite like it.’

Published: 24 Oct 2007