I went to the Teenage Cancer Trust Comedy show at the Royal Albert Hall last night. When the bill was announced one act stood out among compere Jason Manford, John Bishop, Micky Flanagan, Hal Cruttenden and Rob Beckett. Patrick Kielty is a regular TV face but I can't remember the last time I saw him do stand-up. As I arrived in SW7 I thought to myself, this is going to be interesting…

And it was. Kielty came on in the first half and things did not look good. I even feared for a Russell Peters repeat when he walked to the microphone and noted that it is not very encouraging when the applause has petered out before you've even got to the centre of the stage.

Between nervous sips of wine he looked out at the full house and noticed that the seats behind the stage were occupied too, making this almost like an in-the-round gig. He then made a presumably off-the-cuff remark on the lines of comparing them to the Malaysian airliner – they were somewhere if only someone could find them – and there was a bit of a "too soon" gasp.

Yet from this point the Irish comedian turned it around spectacularly with an effervescent routine that mixed the political with the observational. Sometimes both at the same time – "muslims coming over here stealing our terrorism, Poles coming over here stealing out jobs…" He shared his wine with a woman in the front row, he joked about moving to Chelsea and how when he introduced himself to his neighbour she thought he had come to tarmac her drive. And he and really banged home the punchlines, visibly growing in confidence with each laugh.

Riffs on paedophile priests, the Titanic and Russians and twenty minutes later, job done, he had the respect of 6000 fans and the comedians backstage. Jason Manford wrote on Facebook, "Watched him rip it tonight with some hard hitting political but very funny material." 

The interesting thing is that these days Kielty is not really known as a stand-up comedian. While he cut his teeth on the Belfast comedy circuit having grown up during the Troubles and having been personally affected by them, he seemed to make a pretty seamless move into the light entertainment mainstream. Yet by all accounts Kielty was a highly respected comedian, he just seemed to want something else. It has been suggested that he wanted to distance himself from the past. You can't get further away from the Troubles than living in Chelsea, being married to Cat Deeley and presenting Comic Relief does Fame Academy

I'm intrigued by this breed of stand-up who move away from stand-up. There are people who actually do comedy courses who have one eye on a presenter's job in the future. I think the turning point may have been Justin Lee Collins, who did a stint as a stand-up before pretty quickly being embraced by light entertainment and hosting.

I guess this has always happened. The likes of Tarbuck, Monkhouse and Jim Davidson started out as stand ups before primetime game shows employed them. And before that there was the motherlode of the mainstream, Bruce Forsyth, whose skills forged on the dying variety circuit translated brilliantly to television. some keep the stand-up up, others let it slip.

Comedians want to move away from stand-up for all sorts of reasons. Alexei Sayle, David Baddiel and Alan Davies all took extended breaks. I'm going to see Sean Hughes tonight who said recently that he gave up stand-up for a while after seeing Bill Hicks because he felt he wasn't in the same league. 

But it is those comedians who move into the nebulous world of light entertainment that are the most fascinating. I wondered for a while if Jason Manford himself was going to head down that road, but he seems to have pulled back. Of course I can understand why people do it. The money must be pretty good for a start. But can hosting a TV game show ever be as spiritually rewarding as a live stand-up tour?

Maybe Patrick Kielty has realised this. Maybe he did the gig because he knows that there is more to life than hosting Comic Relief Does Fame Academy. Maybe he felt that he needed to get back to his roots. Or at least get a balance. I've checked on Google and he has toured in recent years, but maybe not enough. Maybe he, ahem, had a Kielty conscience.

It is, of course possible to turn things around. The aforementioned Sean Hughes has done it, quitting Never Mind The Buzzcocks and going back on the road. The best example of this stand-up reverse ferret is Simon Amstell, who became known as a TV host on Popworld and Buzzcocks and then chucked it in to be a stand-up. I can't see Patrick Kielty going all angsty and existentialist on us like Amstell, but if he can repeat the success of last night it would be great to see him do more live work