‘I was brought up to believe I was really something quite special,’ says Michael McIntyre. Many of us are, by loving parents, but this was more intense. It started before he was even born. ‘My mother was a young, impressionable 19-year-old walking down the street near her home in Kensington one day when she passed a bookshop, went in on a whim and was persuaded to have a tarot-card reading. The psychic said, “You are pregnant.” My mum said, “I’m not.” But the person reading the cards insisted. “You will have a son. He will be world-famous, everybody will know his name, he will do wonderful things. He is special.”
‘It did briefly cross her mind that maybe tarot readers had a deal with Boots whereby they predicted certain things that would send people immediately to the chemist. “You are pregnant” or “You have a cold sore coming”. Anyway, it was positive.’ So there were great expectations of the child born in London in February 1976. This does sound like a comedian’s yarn, though. Is he telling the truth? ‘Yes, absolutely. I had this weird secret. She was such a believer that she told me this was just how it was. So I had a feeling as a kid that I was going to be this leader of men. When you’re very young you’re looking for magic, so when your mother tells you something like that, you believe it.’ Read how it turned out here