McIntyre tells of awards 'nastiness'

COMEDIAN Michael McIntyre has told how a career-capping night of triumph descended into "nastiness" which left him feeling wretched at an awards event.

The Britain's Got Talent judge said he was left feeling "awful" despite being named best male comic at the British Comedy Awards when he became the butt of other artists' jokes.

In an interview to be broadcast on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs today, he said he was confused about why he provoked such ill feeling.

McIntyre, who can command sell-out audiences at arena shows, has drawn snide comments and sneers from some of his contemporaries for his material.

Fellow comic Stewart Lee has talked of McIntyre "spoon-feeding" his audience "warm diarrhoea".

McIntyre told Desert Island Discs presenter Kirsty Young he was initially shocked by the reaction he provoked among other performers.

"I think it comes with the territory. I'm sure it does, actually. And I can't say it's water off a duck's back and I'm so thick-skinned, I can't just say that.

"I can say it now because I'm getting used to it, but it did come as a shock at the beginning, I can't deny that."

McIntyre was tens of thousands of pounds in debt after repeatedly heading to the Edinburgh Festival in the hope of being spotted before he had a break and found recognition.

But he told Young he found it "confusing" because it was accompanied by "an amazing amount of hostility" from fellow comedians.

"I would never be rude about somebody else in my profession because we all do this same thing. We're just trying to make people laugh. I have my audience, other people have their audience."

Nevertheless he was still taken back at the ferocity of the backlash he received at the British Comedy Awards in January.

"Quite a few people were making jokes at my expense and it just made me feel awful because I'm there with my wife - and she's gone out and bought a dress - and it's my big night and I won and the overriding experience was that of nastiness.

"For what reason I don't know. All I was doing was just making people laugh."

McIntyre, 35, praised the support he receives from his wife Kitty.

"She just keeps me afloat. I worry a lot about things. I worry about the next thing and I worry about things changing and I worry about things ending. I have, like, catastrophic thinking - everything going wrong - and I do it too much and I need her to set me right."